Shadows Hiding in Light
by Pytas
Summary: A team of rookie Toa is asked to join the Legion of Heroes and discovers something about them that was not meant to be revealed...Rated T for some very mild language. Currently considered dead, but may be revitalized at some point in the future.
1. First Contact

Chapter One

First Contact

Ciox strolled down the coastline of Ruta Nui, his mask glinting silver in the setting sunlight. As a De-Matoran, he had silver and black armour, but it was slightly rusted and scratched in numerous places. Still, he liked the scars. They reminded him of past kills.

On Ruta Nui, food was hard to come by. So were Matoran, for that matter. A small village of 50 near the center of the island, where the extinct volcano was, held the bulk of the population. Ciox knew, though, that other Matoran lived elsewhere on the small, ravaged island. He'd found discarded broken tools lying in swamps, or a Rahi carcass that had the telltale scrapes on the bones that could only have been made by Matoran tools.

He was on the trail of one of these nomad Matoran now.

The Matoran made no effort to disguise himself, as if he knew Ciox was there and wanted him to follow. The beach Ciox walked was clean of footprints, and kio away from the village, so the Matoran had to be a nomad. Ciox had spotted some footprints, and, figuring that they meant a Matoran was nearby, Ciox followed. Once a shadow flitted over him, but when he looked up, there was nothing there.

As he walked, Ciox tried to remember how he'd arrived on Ruta Nui. He recalled a ship, and weapons flashing, and screams, then the feel of cold water. He could remember no more. He had washed up on this very beach, and would have died except for a Ga-Matoran who found him when she went to check her fishing nets.

He started as he saw a flash of white in the trees. He would have thought nothing of it and walked on, but the footprints led into the forest near the beach, then stopped. He dashed over to the trees, and, thinking the white flash may have been a Ko-Matoran, cried:

"Hey! Come out of there, brother Matoran!"

This time, a flash of blue.

"I won't hurt you!" His eyes darted down to the hunting spear he held in his hand. "Look!" He stabbed his spear into the ground and released it. He raised his hands, as peacefully as he could.

The blue shifted, and so did Ciox's gaze. "Are you hurt?" he asked the blur.

He hadn't been expecting an answer, but one came anyway. "No..."

The voice was distinctly female. Ciox realized he had said 'brother Matoran'.

"Are you a girl?" As he was saying it, he felt stupid at the wording. If they were a girl, they'd be offended at his stupidity. If they were a boy, they'd be angry at the accusation. "Sorry, I meant..."

Laughter rang from high in the tree. "No problem, I am a girl. What's your name?"

"C-Ciox.." (Guess who?) stuttered.

"I'm Wildr," said the Matoran, apparently named Wildr.

"Wihldr?" Ciox repeated.

"No, Wyl-der," said Wildr. Ciox felt himself blush. What was wrong with him? He wasn't normally this soft. He had killed Tarakava and ash bears without fear, but this girl had coaxed a blush out of him. Ciox decided he wasn't very good at talking with girls.

"Um...can you come down here where I can see you?" Ciox said sheepishly. He felt like a moron.

"Sure," said Wildr, and fell to the ground right in front of Ciox, bracing for the impact with her whole body. Then she stood up and flashed Ciox a grin. Contrary to what he had suspected, she was a Ro-Matoran, with blue and white armour and mask. He felt like he should remember her mask from somewhere, but he couldn't recall from what.

"Nice mask" was all he said.

"Same to you," Wildr grinned again. "What kind is yours?"

"Um, I think it's a Kanohi Mahiki," said Ciox, glad they were talking about something he knew.

"Mine's a Kanohi Iden," Wildr announced proudly. "I haven't got a clue what it does, but I like it anyway."

"Same here." Ciox smiled back before remembering what he had followed her for. "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm a nomad," said Wildr like it was the most normal thing on the island (it wasn't, but almost).

"Do you like it?"

"No..." Wildr said, almost wistfully. "I know there's a village somewhere on the island, but every time I go deep into the forest, I get attacked by Rahi. My knife isn't much use against bigger Rahi, unlike your spear." Wildr gestured first to her knife, which may have been made of bone or fire-hardened birch-wood, then to Ciox's spear. She blinked once to shed her self-pity moment, then said to Ciox, "We nomads should stick together, right?"

"That makes no sense. If we stick together we're not nomads anymore. But, uh, I'm not even a nomad. I live in the village." Wildr's eyes lit up visibly. "I can take you there if you'd like." Ciox already knew she'd say yes. "But we'd better go fast; the big Rahi come out when it gets dark."

And with a quick "Yes!" from Wildr, the two set off to get back to the village, lit by the setting sun.

...

High in the air above the island, Toa of Air Brulaz shut off his Mask of Concealment, which he had used to avoid detection by the destined De-Matoran.

_So, the two Matoran meet again,_ he thought._ Let us hope the rest of their team will slip-fall into step quick-soon as well._

He called on his elemental power and soared toward the flickering torches of the village.


	2. The Search for Icras

**Hello loyal readers! Sorry about there not being an author's note on the first chapter, it's my first fic and it totally slipped my mind. Ah well, there's one here, and that should satisfy you. ****In this chapter, we meet a few new characters, including my personal favourite, Toa Brulaz. Heh heh heh, not saying any more. Well, your probably wanting to read the chapter, now, so...on with the show!**

Chapter Two  
The Search for Icras

"There! There it is!"

Ciox's cry echoed through the night air. No one but Wildr was around to hear him, but she was all who needed to. She ran forward, bursting into the quiet village with all the stealth a Kikanalo smashing through dry trees. She was barely able to contain her excitement, but she settled for a silent victory dance in the village square.

"Shh!" Ciox whispered. "Everyone's asleep at this time of night! Don't wake them!"

"Well, what do I do then?" Wildr asked hopping from foot to foot excitedly. "I can't believe I'm here! No more catching and killing my own Rahi! No more having to boil water to drink it!"

She let out a cry of joy that rivalled the loudest Toa of Sonics in sound. Ciox waited for everyone in the village to come running to see the problem.

He was not disappointed. The flaps to the male and female tents flew open, and Matoran of all kinds poured out to gawk at the newcomer. Ciox rubbed his mask. He was never going to hear the end of this from Turaga Delix and Turaga Finu.

"CIOX!"

Speak of the devils.

"What is the meaning of this?"Finu, Turaga of Water, shrieked in her harsh tones.

"This...this _cacophony_ has disrupted what would have otherwise been a full night's sleep! A hungry full-night's sleep, but sleep nonetheless," remarked Delix, Turaga of Earth.

Ciox went from annoyed (by Finu) to puzzled (by Delix). "Why hungry, Turaga?"

Delix glared darkly at Ciox. "Because you didn't return with a Rahi for us to eat!"

"But what about Icras?" Ciox asked. "Surely he brought you some meat for the night."

"No he didn't!" interjected Finu. "He hasn't returned all day!"

Ciox's eyes widened in shock. Icras was Ciox's hunting partner, and a damn good one, too. Icras had spotted a large brown Rahi deer partway through the day, and chased after it. He had told Ciox he would kill it and bring it back to the village, and meet him there at the end of the day. If he was gone, what would it mean for the village?

"I'm going to find him!" Ciox announced bravely. He turned to leave, but Delix grabbed him by the back of his mask.

"First, you'll tell us who this is." He gestured to the Ro-Matoran shaking hands with people and making new friends.

Oh, right. Ciox had momentarily forgotten Wildr. "Um...she's a nomad. She's tried to get here before, but she couldn't because she was attacked by Rahi. Her name's Wildr."

"And what right do you have to abandon your duty to the village to go on a date with this girl?" Finu scolded, and Ciox swore the whole village fell silent just as she said that. Under his mask, Ciox blushed again.

"I...uh...didn't go on a date...with her...I've never seen her before today!" Ciox countered, but no one believed him. They all wanted to believe he was a star-struck lover. For some reason, that made Ciox mad.

"Never forget the three virtues, young one! Unity–" Delix began, but Ciox cut him off with a sarcastic, angry, "Duty, Destiny. Yes, we all know that. But _some of us_ insist on making false accusations!" He whirled on the spot and began to stalk out of the village, spear in hand. "I'm going to go find Icras."

"No, you're not." With his back turned to the gathered crowd, didn't see the figure floating into the village. The Matoran all gasped, but Ciox didn't hear. He assumed it was one of the Turaga talking and snorted angrily, covering the sound of the gasp.

"Yes, I am, and nothing either of you say or do will stop me."

"Then how about this: I think-know where your friend-pal is."

Ciox realized that wasn't how Delix or Finu talked, or sounded, and turned to look at the great green figure standing in the middle of a circle of Matoran.

"Who...who are you?" The question came from Wildr, who was standing in front of the newcomer while all the other Matoran had backed slightly away to give the tall one room.

"I am Toa Brulaz, master of Air and the spear," said the Toa. "Here to help."

Brulaz quickly became a hero in the small village. He hadn't done anything yet; he'd only arrived a minute ago, but just his presence made Matoran feel safer.

"You know where Icras is?" Ciox gasped.

Brulaz smiled mysteriously. "No idea."

Ciox glared at him.

Brulaz shrugged. "Well, actually, I have a general idea of where he is." Then, under his breath, he added, "It's a good thing, too, or else I'd have no use for this." He looked at the rock in his hand, then put it into his pack.

"Can you take me there?" Ciox asked with no hesitation.

"No."

And the glare returned.

"Just kidding. Come, I think he's this way." Brulaz turned and beckoned for the De-Matoran to follow him out of the village.

"You _think_? Gee, that inspires confidence," Ciox mumbled.

"Hey, I'll go too," said Wildr.

"I thought you wanted to get to the village, Wildr?" said Ciox, confused.

"I did," she said calmly. "And I did. Now I want to go find your friend. Hey, you helped me, now I'll return the favour."

Ciox couldn't find a reason why she shouldn't come, and Brulaz welcomed the assistance. "Great! Going off on a help-rescue mission! That hasn't happened to me in years!"

The whole village watched them as they walked off into the underbrush.

...

"You said you hadn't done this is years, didn't you?" grumbled Ciox.

"That I did." Brulaz nodded.

"Apparently, because WE'RE TOTALLY LOST!" shouted Ciox angrily. It was now morning; the little group had spent the whole night "searching" the forest. Ciox checked his handheld sundial; it was almost eight o'clock. He looked up to see they were passing a tree with a slash cut into its bark. "I scraped that tree with my spear the third time I thought we passed it. This is the eighth time I've seen it!"

"Don't be too hard on him," Wildr said soothingly, putting her hand on his shoulder. Ciox jumped at her touch. "He's not at his best on the ground."

"I think-know he was by the volcano somewhere..." Brulaz thought aloud.

"The volcano's over there," snapped Ciox, pointing north.

"Ah! Let's happy-go that way then!" Brulaz walked off to the north.

As he walked off, Ciox mumbled to Wildr, "What an idiot! How did he ever become a Toa?"

Wildr shrugged. "Perhaps his innocence masks his true wisdom," she remarked. When she got a raised eyebrow from Ciox, she said, "I don't know, it sounds good."

A few hours later, the huge grey volcano loomed above them. Partway up, Ciox could see Rahi deer like the ones Icras had chased jumping around, more like mountain goats than deer. A few deer went into a cave, but didn't come out again.

"There." Ciox pointed to the cave. "That's probably where they took him."

"Then let's quick-go get him," Brulaz said, calling on his power of air to rise off the ground.

"Hey, hey, whoa! How are we going to get up there? You can fly, but we can't!" Wildr pointed out.

Brulaz smiled. "Says who?"

He grabbed both Matoran by the hand, and shot upward. Wildr screamed in surprise, but quickly cut it off. Ciox, on the other hand, was enchanted by flight. He felt the wind on his face, heard it whistling by his ears, and...

"We're here!" Brulaz set the two Matoran down, then touched down himself. He looked deep into the inky blackness of the cave, then said quietly and nervously, "Um...can I stay here?"

Ciox was taken aback. Here was a Toa, held in high regard as fearless warriors who protected the Matoran, and this one was cowardly enough to want to _stay behind_? "Why?" asked Ciox, almost angrily.

Brulaz tapped his index fingers together. "Well...see, we Air Toa aren't very happy-good with caves. That's a Toa of Stone or Iron thing. Cave have...creepy-dark things scratch-crawling everywhere, and...no open air..."

Ciox would have demanded he come along, but Wildr stepped in between them. "That's fine, Brulaz. You can stay out here with all the deer and stuff."

Brulaz perked up. "Really?"

"No."

"Aw..."

"Just kidding."

Ciox rolled his eyes, but decided not to argue with Wildr. After all, the more time they wasted, the more danger Icras might be in. He turned and began walking into the cave. "Alright, then, let's go."

Wildr turned as well, and followed Ciox into the cave. Brulaz watched them go. In truth, he was not at all scared of caves. He had trained himself over thousands of years to barely be afraid of anything. Still, the Matoran could not know he was testing them.

_And these carnivorous Rahi are just the thing to test them with,_ he thought. _Still, I should follow them to make sure nothing happens to them._

So, activating his Kanohi Huna, he turned invisible and walked silently after the two Matoran.

...

Ciox's luck had not changed; he was still lost.

Not thinking beforehand to take a lightstone, he and Wildr were wandering around in the dark. The pathway kept branching out into various other paths, making it impossible to find the chamber where Icras was.

"There!" Wildr yelled, pointing (though Ciox didn't know that. It was so dark you couldn't see a foot in front of you). A shaft of light fell from a hole in the sloped ceiling onto the unconscious form of Icras.

Seeing his friend, Ciox shot forward, at Icras' side in a flash. He knew it was probably a trap; it was too easy to have what he was looking for in the only lit chamber in the entire cave system. Right then he didn't care. He saw the closed eyes behind his friend's Kanohi Arthron, and his heartlight jumped. He hurriedly checked Icras' vital signs; heartlight pulsing, check. Breath, check. He stood up and turned back to Wildr. "He's alive," he reported. "Here, come help me lift him up."

Wildr rushed forward to assist Ciox. Each took one of the unconscious Matoran's arms and hoisted him onto his feet. As they did so, the Le-Matoran's eyes snapped open, and he tried to get a good look at his new surroundings. When he spoke, his voice was dry and cracked, and he had to take a breath every few seconds.

"W...where am...I?" he croaked, all tree-speak muted by his current condition.

"Inside the volcano," Wildr replied. Icras turned his head slowly to look at her.

"Who...are...you?" he breathed heavily.

"She's Wildr, a new friend," Ciox said. "How do you feel?"

Icras looked at Ciox and smiled. "You...it's good...to see...you...Ciox." He coughed and hacked loudly. "I don't...feel so good..."

Then he threw up all over Ciox.

"Mata Nui, that's disgusting!" It was all Ciox could do not to drop Icras and wipe the bile off.

"S...sorry..." Icras said, hanging his head low, obviously weary. "You asked how...I feel...my left arm is numb...my chest feels like Kikanalo...held a tap-dancing contest on top of it...and I can't see anything." He paused. "Though, I suppose...that's just natural, seeing as...we're inside the volcano..."

Ciox looked at the smoothed-out walls around him. His first thought was that no natural cave could have walls that smooth. His second thought was that they hadn't left the lit chamber yet. If he couldn't see anything, yet his eyes were open...

"Icras..." Wildr had come to the same conclusion. "You've gone blind."


	3. The Wrath of Rahi

**Ooh, blindness. Eeh-hee-hee. It's a little dark, but...its also kinda neat. And how will the other two deal with Rahi who can blind their opponents? Well, read it and find out. At the end of the chapter, we start getting into the real storyline, so just be patient.**

Chapter Three  
The Wrath Of Rahi

"Blind?" Icras gasped. "I can't be blind! There's so...much to see! I haven't even..seen other islands! No, no, no, no..." he lapsed into a fit of sobbing.

"Don't worry, Icras, it'll all work out..." Wildr said quietly. Then, so quiet Icras couldn't hear, she murmured, "I hope."

"Well, for now, we need to get out of here. Once we're out and safe, we can try to help you. Who knows, maybe the blindness is temporary." Ciox was trying to look on the bright side. Then he thought of something.

"Icras..." he said to his friend. "How would you have gone blind? From the sound of your condition, you were beat up and dumped here for who knows why. Getting beat up isn't going to blind you." They stepped into the dark corridor to make the slow journey back to the outside world.

"The...Rahi deer. They...their horns..." Icras had become exhausted again, but now with grief. "Boom."

"Boom?" Wildr questioned.

"Boom...like, flash. Huge-big flash." Icras was beginning to get better; his tree-speak was coming back.

"So, you're saying that their horns flashed." Ciox said, piecing it together. "So brightly that it blinded you."

"Yeah..." Icras said, voice raspy and hoarse. Ciox decided not to question him much more.

"Right then, try to get some rest. We'll get you out of here," Ciox said. He heard no more from Icras, except for some slow, repetitive breathing.

"Makes sense," said Wildr thoughtfully. "If these Rahi live in dark caves where the light doesn't reach, they would need to adapt to that in some way. Maybe their eyes are immune to these flashes of light so they can see around in the dark."

"And capture their prey," said Ciox grimly. "Blinding them so they can easily take them down."

"You mean these Rahi..." Wildr said.

"...are probably carnivorous, yes." Ciox's voice held its grim tone.

A flash illuminated the chamber ahead. Luckily, it was too small to do any damage to their eyesight. Ciox assumed it was a young one, horns not fully charged yet. He was right.

A small Rahi deer sat in the chamber, its stubby horns fading to a golden colour as the flash it had let off ceased. It eyed the trio of Matoran with small, beady black eyes, and blinked.

Ciox spotted that when it blinked, momentarily, the eye slid upward to reveal a red eyeball beneath before the black eyelid and the real eyelid snapped down. When it opened its eyes again, Ciox could see by the light of the slowly fading horns that the black eyelid was not there anymore. It took less than half a second, but Ciox saw. Then the horns fully darkened, and the room plunged into darkness.

"It's got a second eyelid," he said quietly to Wildr, as so not to spook the Rahi. "It must go down for a while when it lets off a burst of light to protect its eyes from damage."

"See? They've evolved a second eyelid. I was right." Wildr sounded rather proud of herself.

"How do we get around it?" Ciox said. There was a proverb in his village that said, 'Don't spook the stone rat.' Stone rats are harmless creatures except when scared. Then they chitter their teeth together to call for help, and the pack of rats eats almost everything in sight. In his line of experience, Ciox knew this meant, 'even if they look harmless, avoid them anyway'.

"We go straight through it," Wildr said confidently. "Looks harmless enough."

"It blinded Icras."

"Oh. Right. Well, then, we turn and go the other way."

"Right answer." Ciox and Wildr turned as one, and started to leave the chamber the way they had come.

More Rahi began to file into the chamber, blocking their exits.

"Hm. Wasn't expecting this," said Ciox. The room was illuminated by the faintly glowing horns of the Rahi.

"Now what?" To give her credit, Wildr didn't seem scared at all, though neither she nor Ciox had ever faced this kind of thing before.

"We close our eyes, shield them with our free hands, and run like Karzahni," Ciox said.

"Of course. The only possible solution," Wildr joked, covering her eyes and shutting them tight. Ciox did the same.

"CHAAAARGE!" he yelled, and the three Matoran shot through the ranks of the Rahi deer. He could see bright lights going off even with his eyes closed and covered. He couldn't imagine what it would have been like for Icras, who caught the blast full on and unprotected.

Large forms bashed against him, threatening to topple him to the ground. Even with his armour, he could still feel every blow to his body. One Rahi smashed the wind out of him with an "Oof". He almost stopped, but he thought that if he stopped, they'd be all over him. Icras had faced only one, and look what happened to him (he found himself comparing his experience to Icras' often). He jabbed out with his spear, and was greeted with a resounding crack as the spear snapped in two against a Rahi's thick hide.

Sharp teeth sank into his leg like his armour was made of leaves, making Ciox scream and release what little air he had regained. So they were carnivorous. Wildr pulled him and Icras along, ignoring her pain to help others.

Ciox's only thoughts before he fell unconscious from the pain were, _She'd make a good Toa._

Ciox awoke to find himself sitting upright, propped against a wall. He looked around, but they were still inside the cave network. His heartlight jumped. It was totally black. He couldn't see anything. Was he blind now, like Icras? No, no, that was impossible. Icras took the brunt of a flash, Ciox had not. He swivelled his head to one side. Nothing. He looked the other way. In the darkness, he could barely make out the form of Icras, lying asleep on the ground. Ciox's eyes had adjusted enough so he could see...well, a tiny bit. He could hear his partner's breathing from here. Good, he needed his rest.

A pain in his leg made him cry out loud. Icras shot awake. So much for sleep.

"Are you good-right?" he asked the wall.

"I'm over here," Ciox said.

"Oh," said Icras, turning towards the source of the sound. "I thought-knew that."

"The boys are awake," said Wildr. Ciox could see her faint form walking–no, limping–towards them, her right hand dangling at her side, some firewood in her left.

Icras heard her footsteps and perked up. "Wildr!" he said. "Thank Mata Nui, you're alive-well!"

"Alive, yes, well, not so much," Wildr said, dropping in a heap between Ciox and Icras. "My right arm is broken, my broken leg armour is digging into my leg, and this is yours." she handed Ciox the two pieces of firewood. Then Ciox realized they were not firewood, but his broken spear.

"Oh. Thanks," he said sadly. "You had to go back in that mayhem for this, didn't you?"

"Not so much mayhem after I got us out," Wildr said, her voice rebounding off the walls. "The Rahi tried to follow us out, but a gust of wind blew them all into the ceiling. When they fell down again, they all galloped away, scared. So, I went back in and retrieved your spear." She fiddled with a pebble on the ground. "Not sure where the wind came from, though."

"Damage report!" said Icras, and Ciox smiled. At the end of each day, if Icras and Ciox had split up, they would meet in the village and give each other their damage report.

"My leg is numb with pain, I'm having a bit of trouble breathing, and my mask is..." he adjusted his mask. "Never mind!"

Icras patted himself down. "Aside from early-bad problems, I'm quick-fine! Probably didn't want to damage such a great mask," Icras joked.

"Why did they beat you up earlier then?" Ciox joked back.

Wildr joined in. "Broken armour, broken arm, injured leg, but otherwise fine."

"I know a good healer in the village. Gets a lot of business. We'll see him afterwards, okay?" said Ciox. "Now we should get out of here."

"Right," said Icras, standing. "Let's go."

"Hey, Icras, your legs are better!" Wildr said with a grin in her voice.

"'Course they are," said Icras proudly. "I was just yawn-tired before. They never beat-smashed my legs at all!"

He fell over.

...

"Light! Look, look, look, light!" Wildr pointed towards the exit.

"Where?" said Icras.

"Over there!" Wildr said, pointing.

"_Where?_" said Icras, more insistently.

"Oh. Right in front of you!" Wilder said, who then went back to leading Icras. For the longest time, it was like the blind leading the blind, but now there was light and they could _see _again!

Ciox stepped out into the golden sunlight, shielding his eyes while they got used to the brightness. Once they did, he looked up at the sky. The sun was almost overhead! They'd been in that cave for four hours!

"Hey...where's Brulaz?" said Wildr.

"Brulaz?" said Icras, a question in his tone.

"He's our Toa friend," said Ciox, eyes fixed on the sky. "He said he would wait out here for us."

"There's a Toa on Ruta Nui? This day is full of joy-surprises." Icras' eyes lit up, although he couldn't see anything.

"Yeah, he's a Toa of Air," Ciox said.

"Wow! Another Toa-hero! Here! And a Le-Toa, too! Like me!" said Brulaz, dropping from the rocks above them. "Oh, this is so happy-great!"

"No, we were talking about you, Brulaz," Ciox said.

"Oh. Oh, well, that doesn't matter. I see you found your friend!" Brulaz said, pointing to the green Matoran.

"Yeah, this is Icras. He's our buddy." Ciox put his fist up for Icras to clank, but Icras didn't move. He was staring at Brulaz. Ciox lowered his fist.

"What does he look like?" Icras asked. Brulaz looked down at himself, then said, "Oh, I get it, he's sight-blind. I look very smart-handsome, if I do speak-say so myself, which I do."

"He's tall and green and wears a funny mask," said Wildr.

"You don't have to be so blunt," said Brulaz, playing hurt. Then he seemed to notice his friends _were_ hurt. "We'd better get you home-back to the village, ever-quick!" He conjured a gust of wind, and it seemed almost as if the three Matoran were sitting on cushions of air. "Let's go!"

Brulaz took off, and the air cushions took off after him. Icras was amazed by the feeling. "Wow," he breathed. "We're flying! We're flying!" He repeated that phrase all the way to the village, even when he was set down on the ground. "We're flying! We're flying! We...oh."

The healer was very generous, giving the three Matoran all their repairs and the like for free (after Toa Brulaz asked him to nicely). When they left the Po-Matoran's shop, Wildr flexed her new hand armour.

"Nice," she said. "Certainly beats my old stuff into the ground, that's for sure."

As Ciox patted his bright silver chest armour, a thought occurred to him. "Now what do we do? We've rescued Icras, now will we just go back to our daily lives?"

"I guess there's not much else we can do," said Wildr. She turned to Brulaz. "Will you be staying with us here?"

Brulaz smiled. "No, I will not. In fact, it's the other way around."

Icras frowned to Ciox. "What do you mean?"

"Over here," said Brulaz. "You three...your destinies do not end on this island. You are not destined to remain here forever. You are destined...to be Toa."

A gasp came from all Matoran within earshot. "Ciox...a Toa?" said one. "What will we do without him and Icras for meat?" said another.

"There are others, you know," said Icras, sounding offended. "Others bring in Rahi-meat, but no one eats it. Why? Because you depend on the two whose 'duty' it is to spear-kill the Rahi-meat. You depend to much on 'duty'. Jivla! Opex! Step forward!"

A Ga-Matoran and an Ar-Matoran stepped forward, as Icras asked. Hearing where their footsteps came from, Icras turned to them. "As of now, you two are the official Rahi-meat kill-hunters of the village. I've seen you two come in with Rahi-fish and some small meat-Rahi. Together, you could feed this village as well as Ciox and I can. So, go forth, kill-hunters! And keep our village healthy-strong!"

The gathered Matoran (for some had come to see what all the hubbub was for) applauded. Ciox found himself clapping as well. Icras stepped back and Ciox grabbed his shoulder. "Nice speech," he said truthfully.

"Thanks," said Icras. "It just burst-came out."

Brulaz cleared his throat. "Now that that's over, would you three mind coming with me to the ship I have docked?"

Wildr frowned. "This is a rather small island, and I've walked around it time and time again. There's no place to dock without getting beached."

Brulaz flashed a grin. "But sailing in the sky-tops, ah, now that's a way to glide-travel. Wouldn't be caught dead sailing in the _water-yuck_." he said the last word like it was poison.

"Wow! Where is it then?" said Icras, his whole body excited. Brulaz simply pointed up.

Above, a shadow fell over the village as a great wooden ship with wings attached to the sides like paddles flapped its way over the village. A Matoran on the deck tossed down a rope ladder into the village.

"I said, where is it?" Icras repeated, oblivious to the great airship above.

"Nice..." said Wildr, grinning in anticipation. "Always wanted to be a Toa."

"What Matoran doesn't?" said Brulaz with a smile, climbing up the ladder with agility.

Wildr helped Icras get onto the ladder, then climbed on herself. Ciox was the last to get on. He looked around at the village that had been his home for that last hundred years (yet for some reason he'd never seen those deer creatures before) and wondered if he'd ever see it again. He told himself he would, but in his heartlight, he knew he would not. The village Matoran looked on as the silver and black Matoran, who was the backbone of the village for so long, climbed up the ladder and disappeared.


	4. The Undiscovered Island

**And I'm back, with another chapter. Um, by the way, turns out the names Ro-Matoran and Ar-Matoran aren't actually the official canon names. Oops. I just copied them from another story I read by RustyRedRaptor, so my apologies to all for misleading you. I'm not so sure about De-Matoran either, but eh, I'll leave everything as is. Oh, and READ AND REVIEW, PEOPLE!  
Oh, and here's a pronunciation guide. Some people have yet to be introduced yet, though. Ciox: CHI-ox; Wildr: WYL-der; Icras: IHK-rus; Kavin: KAH-vin; Ximtar: KSIM-tahr; Singva: SING-vah. You probably could have guessed most of those, but I felt I should put that in to avoid any inconveniences.**

Chapter Four  
The Undiscovered Island

Ciox watched as his island slowly grew smaller and smaller in the distance. The continuous thrum of the motors that kept the airship afloat rumbled through the deck, making Ciox's feet buzz. Icras was down in the hold, trying to figure out where everything was. He had begun to accept his blindness, and even joked about it sometimes. Ciox began to wonder where they were going. He turned away from the railing and hopped up the metal stairs that led to the captain's cabin. He expected to see Brulaz at the wheel, but instead, there stood a Toa dressed all in silver.

"Who are you?" asked Ciox. The Toa turned and gave Ciox a stare.

"I am Toa Romcron, captain of this ship and Toa of Magnetism. Who are _you_, young one?"

"Um..." This Romcron had an edge to him that unnerved Ciox, not like when he talked to Wildr, but different. "I'm Ciox. I'm a De-Matoran." He gathered his courage and stuck his fist out to clank. The Toa stared at the fist, then returned to the wheel.

"Do not take me lightly, Matoran. You are no brother of mine. What I do, I do alone."

Romcron reminded Ciox of a Ko-Matoran who lived in his village. He was calm, cool, and didn't like company at all. He preferred to sit in the healer's hut and create things for him. The only thing he ever said was "Uh." Romcron was a bit better than that, but not much.

Brulaz poked his head into the cabin. "Hey, brother! How's the glide-sailing?" He spotted Ciox standing by Romcron, and his face fell. He hurried over and began to herd Ciox out of the cabin. "Heya Ciox how ya doing buddy let's go see your bunk shall we?" When they were out of the cabin, Brulaz shut the door and breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't go in there," he warned.

"Why not? He can't be that bad," said Ciox.

"Um..." said Brulaz. "How can I put this lightly...he hates De-Matoran."

"What? Why?"

"Well...let's just say he had a bad experience with them." Brulaz would say no more about it. "Let's get you to your cabin."

"Okay..." Ciox was still a little suspicious of this mysterious incident, but he didn't pester Brulaz about it.

Below decks was as spacious as it looked. Four cabins lined each wall, and each cabin had two bunk beds. Doing the math in his head, Ciox found that meant thirty-two Matoran could sleep down here.

"And this is your room," said Brulaz, opening one of the doors. Inside were (naturally) two bunk beds, and a green and blue Matoran sat on the top bunk of the one on the left.

"Kavin, this is Ciox. He's a De-Matoran. Ciox, this is Kavin. He's an Ar-Matoran. Now you two get happy-along now, we'll be soar-flying for a time-while." Brulaz shut the door quietly behind him. Kavin hopped off the bunk, landing with a loud 'thunk' on the ground. He stuck out his fist to clank, and Ciox did (for a change). "Good to meet you," said Kavin, a smile on his mask. "I'm your bunk-mate. There could be others, but none so far. There's enough room for all six of us, but too many more and we'll have to put people in other rooms!" he finished his sentence with a mock gasp.

"Nice to meet you too," said Ciox, putting on his own smile. "But, six? There's just the three from my island, and you, right?"

Kavin shook his head. "No, there's another from my island, and one more from some other island called...like, Voya Nui, or something like that. Here, I'll show you around." Kavin opened the door, still grinning, and beckoned for Ciox to follow.

He led Ciox down the corridor. "That's where your male friend and the one from my island sleep," he said. "What is your friend, anyway?"

"He's a Le-Matoran," answered Ciox. Kavin nodded and smiled again.

"Great! Every Toa team can use some comedy relief," Kavin continued on.

"Comedy relief?" said Ciox, strolling beside him.

Kavin stopped in front of another door. "That's what most Air Toa do, comedy relief. Among, you know, being a Toa and all." he pointed to the door. "And this is where the girl from Voya Nui and your female friend bunk out. And what's your friend, then?"

"She's a Ro-Matoran," said Ciox. "What are your two friends, then?"

"Oh, not so much friends," said Kavin with a shrug. "More like...acquaintances. Singva, she's the girl in here, she's a Ga-Matoran. And Ximtar, he's a Ko-Matoran." Kavin pointed back at Icras' cabin.

"Come on, meet her," said Kavin, opening the girls' door. Ciox went to stop him, but he'd already opened the door. He turned, closed his eyes, and waited for the scream.

It came later than he thought. Kavin had time to get out an "oops, sorry" before it came. Kavin quickly slammed the door shut, breathing heavily.

"Scared?" said Ciox, grinning smugly.

"A little, yeah...If you'd just walked in on a girl who was about to change, and by extension kill you for being in the room at time of said change, wouldn't you be?"

"Changing?" On Ruta Nui, nobody had a spare set of armour to change into. They must be rich on Voya Nui. "I thought she was just going to be mad you didn't knock first."

"Knocking," said Kavin thoughtfully, as if it was a fresh and new idea. "What a novel idea. I must try that sometime. In any case, maybe we should talk to Ximtar first." They walked back down the hall to Icras and Ximtar's room. "He's a little cold, but then, aren't all Ko-Matoran?" Kavin said as he opened the door.

Ciox's first impression of Ximtar was that he had a tablet for a face. He was lying on the lower bunk of the right bed, while Icras lay across from him on the other lower bunk, asleep. Ximtar's hands were folded across his chest, and they rose and fell with his breathing. His silver and white armour glinted in the sunlight streaming in through the porthole. It seemed he'd been reading a tablet before falling asleep, as what Ciox took to by his face was, upon closer inspection, reading material.

"Hey! Ximtar!" Kavin shouted at Ximtar. Ximtar jolted awake. The tablet slid off his face and fell with a thud to the ground, making him jump again. He glared at Kavin and swung himself over to sit on the side of the bed. Icras merely mumbled in his sleep about crunchy rainbow Kikanalo and rolled over.

"What do you want, Kavin? More inconveniences? No, no, let me guess: this guy is one of the members of the team, right?" Ximtar gave Ciox a once-over. "Weakling. No muscle at all. Couldn't lift a fish." Then he glanced over at Kavin. "Oh, I'm sorry. I should have been talking to you. At least _he's_ got some muscle." He looked back at Ciox. "What's your name?"

"Ciox," (Guess who again?) said, trying to put a bit of steel into his voice to sound more intimidating.

"Ooh, scary. Oh, no, it's _Chiocks come to ravage our souls..._yeah, right, kid. Go home and leave the professionals to do their work. I bet you've never been in a fight once."

Ciox frowned, both annoyed and confused. "Professional?"

"Yeah, I was a fighter on my island. I–"

"Actually, he helped herd Rahi," said Kavin, trying to be helpful.

"Shut up, ass-mask! But I have been in fights, with ash bears and stuff."

"Only weapon he's ever touched was in a museum," said Kavin, trying to give Ciox some backstory on Ximtar.

"Well...well...even so, I bet you've never fought before either!" Ximtar gave Ciox a defiant look that said, _Ha, so there_.

"Actually, I have. Many times. I'm pretty good with a spear, actually. Provided my village with meat for the longest time." Ciox smirked.

"Uh...uh...shut up!" replied Ximtar, and kicked the two Matoran out of the room. As he did so, he said, "It's bad enough I have to bunk with ice bat there, without you two as well..."

"Ice bat?" said Ciox as the door slammed audibly behind them.

"As in 'blind as a'." Kavin said.

"Oh."

"Well, I suppose we can go see the girls now, can't we?" said Kavin, clapping his hands together and rubbing them.

"Only if you knock first."

Kavin placed a hand over his heartlight and held the other one up. "I swear, no more barging into other people's rooms. Now let's go!"

They stood in front of the girls' room, and Kavin rapped the door three times with his index knuckle. Then he stared at it. "Interesting," he said.

The door opened and there stood a Ga-Matoran, dressed in shining blue armour with an elegant mask. When she spoke, her voice was melodic, like a song. She wasn't called 'Singva' for nothing.

"Who are you?" she asked Ciox.

"Ubba wugaba dur," said Ciox, remembering too late how bad he was at talking to girls.

"Um, is he mute?" she asked Kavin.

"CIOX!" shouted you-know-who. "I'm new!"

Singva smiled, and Ciox did his best not to crack into a goofy grin back. "Nice to meet, you. I'm Singva, Ga-Matoran. This is my bunkmate, Wildr," Singva said, gesturing to the blue-and-white Matoran who stood behind her. Wildr noticed how taken Ciox was with Singva and rolled her eyes.

"Is it like this with _all_ guys you meet?" Wildr said coldly, staring straight at Ciox with a _knock it off right now or I'll drop you out the window and tell Brulaz you took a swim _look on her mask. If Singva heard the edge to Wildr's voice, she didn't let on. Ciox straightened and did his best to look casual.

"Most of the time," said Singva calmly.

"Right," Ciox held out his fist to clank. "Nice to meet you. I've, uh, already met Wildr, she, uh, lived on my island. Um, well, then, we'd better get going, shouldn't we?" Ciox gave Kavin a look, but he didn't catch on. "_SHOULDN'T WE?_" Ciox said, kicking Kavin in the leg.

Kavin got it. "Ah, yes, it's almost dinnertime. We should go." No sooner were the words out of his mouth than he was being dragged by Ciox out of the room. Ciox slammed the door behind him.

Outside the door, Ciox slid to the floor and breathed out heavily. "I suck at talking to girls. I'm in no hurry to go through that again."

Kavin looked thoughtful, then said, "It's no problem for me. I just treat them like any other Matoran I've met."

"And how did you treat them?" Ciox asked.

"Nicely" was Kavin's answer. "Oh, and I wasn't lying about it being almost dinnertime. It actually is. Here, down this way." Kavin led Ciox to the end of the hall to see a set of double doors. A sign above the doors read "Mess Hall". Kavin swung the doors open in a very grand fashion, allowing Ciox to see inside.

Rows of tables sat inside, three fully decked with amazing dishes. One table had roasted Kane-Ra head, another the cooked body of some four-legged Rahi, each dish embroidered with vegetables and fruits of all shapes and colours. Ciox couldn't help himself; he rushed over to a table and began wolfing down some sort of purple potato-like vegetable, but it was more rubbery and sweet.

"Don't eat that," said Kavin calmly, walking over and sitting down beside Ciox. Ciox's mouth was already stuffed with the vegetable. He'd never had a spread like this in his life! Well, maybe in the part of his memories riddled with amnesia.

"W' n't?" Ciox was trying to say, "Why not?" but his mouth was full. Remember kids, never talk with your mouth full.

"We're not supposed to eat before the bell signals us to dinner. We got here a little early." As if in response, a bell on the wall began to ring. "Okay, now you can swallow."

Ciox gulped. "Yum," he said. "What else is there..." he said to himself. Ciox began nipping about the Mess Hall, trying some of this, and a bit of that, and he also devoured the salad bar.

The rest of the Matoran filed in, Icras bumping into things until Wildr brought him to a seat, Singva sitting down across from Wildr, and Ximtar sitting in a remote corner. Ciox eventually remembered that there were plates, filled one up (piled high with bits of just about everything), and went over to sit down next to Icras. Kavin sat down beside Singva, but only took stuff to eat from his table.

"You're also not supposed to go around like it's a buffet, except, naturally, the salad bar. Whatever we don't eat, the cooks will. What _they_ don't eat is kept in cold storage to be thrown out next time they land. See how they've only put food on three tables?"

Ciox didn't answer. He was too busy eating Kane-Ra head.

Singva delicately nibbled away at some sort of green tuber. When asked what it was, all she said was, "Very sour."

Icras felt around on the table, playing up his blindness a bit. Then he found the drumsticks on the Gukko bird and began to eat two-fisted, a drumstick in each hand. "Wow," he said. "Gukko bird. I've spot-seen them before, but I've never snare-caught one and meat-cooked it."

"How do you know it's a Gukko?" asked Wildr.

Icras swallowed. "Blind man's intuition. Like woman's intuition, but for blind guys."

Ciox laughed, then took another bite.

...

Off in the corner, Ximtar was eating the four-legged Rahi–very slowly. His attention wasn't totally focussed on it; he knew how to sit back and observe. He was currently observing his new comrades-in-arms. Singva was a bit too perfect, she had to have some kind of problem; Wildr was too heroic, trying to be a hero when it wasn't her place to; Icras, well, he was blind, and wouldn't be much use on a Toa team; Kavin was too happy-go-lucky, to the point of idiocy; and Ciox...well, Ciox was too stubborn. He always insisted on being the better man, although Ximtar knew the better man between them was him.

Ximtar was a vain pessimist.

...

Ciox sat back in his seat, rubbing his stomach fondly. "What a meal," he said. "Are all the meals up here like this?"

"No," said Kavin. "Only when there's a new passenger on board. That would be you three." he pointed to Wildr, Ciox, and Icras.

Brulaz walked into the Mess Hall. "Hey, guys," he said happily. "How's the chow-food?"

"Great," said Icras. "Is there a dessert course?"

"Yes, but it'll come later. For now you've got to look-see this island."

Brulaz led the six Matoran up to the deck, Singva leading Icras the whole way. Ciox wondered how he could hold her hand and not tremble with nervousness, but he decided to focus on the island that had appeared to their right. Each Matoran (except Icras and Ximtar) rushed over to lean over the railing and marvel at it.

"What's it look like?" said Icras to Kavin from his position, sitting on the deck.

Kavin cleared his throat. "Well, the island looks, from the our current height, like a great teardrop, with the pointed end facing in our direction. Huge tree cover shrouds most of the island's landscape, but I can see a large green field in the center of the island. A large domed rock sits in the middle of the field, looking like a dot from up here.

"Do you see it then?" asked Brulaz, leaning over the other Matoran. "Ximtar, Icras, come over here and look." The two Matoran did as instructed, though Icras didn't know why.

"Yes," said Singva.

"Go there," said Brulaz, pushing all six Matoran out of the ship with a gust of wind.


	5. The NotSoFinal Frontier

**Hmm...well, I think that this is the last chapter that will be named after a Star trek movie, simply because I can't think any witty names. Anyway, in this chapter, the Matoran...I won't say any more. And, I can't think of anything else to say, so...happy reading!**

Chapter Five

The Not-Very-Final Frontier

As Ciox fell, his only thoughts were, _I thought he said there would be dessert later_.

"Icras!" Ciox snapped his head over to see Wildr trying to flap her way through the air towards Icras. "Grab my hand!"

Icras stuck out his hand, and Wildr grabbed his whole arm with both hands. " Did Brulaz trick us?" Icras said. "I feel like I'm falling from a very high place!"

"You are, idiot!" Falling to certain doom hadn't made Ximtar any nicer.

"What do we do now?" shouted Singva.

"FALL!" came Ciox's reply.

And so they did.

The six Matoran splashed down in the water, and Ximtar and Icras were instantly knocked unconscious. Luckily, Ciox, Singva, Kavin, and Wildr managed to stay conscious, and they swam up. Singva (the only one among them who had trained herself to open her eyes underwater) saw Ximtar sinking and quickly yanked him to the surface.

"Swim, friends! To the island!" she cried, and the little band of future Toa swam for all they were worth.

Thirty minutes later, they came up on the beach, totally exhausted. "Well, that was a nasty little experience I wouldn't like to repeat," muttered Kavin.

"You weren't carrying another Matoran!" said Singva and Wildr in unison.

Ciox coughed water and wiped some seaweed off his mask. "What was Brulaz thinking? What if we'd encountered a Tarakava or two? Then where would we be? Eaten and discarded on the ocean floor, that's where," he grumbled loudly, wiping sand off his hands. "Bad enough two of us fainted before we even started swimming."

"Still," said Kavin, standing and looking inland. "We should probably do what Brulaz said, even if he did shove us off a boat."

"_Airship_," said Icras, who was starting to regain consciousness. Ximtar was also stirring.

"Ugh," he said, rubbing his mask. "No more white wine spritzers for me before bed."

"What are you talking about?" said Singva, who was then dropped him on the sand.

"Something from my old island. Anyway, where are we?" He looked around. "This isn't the ocean."

"No, really, Ximtar. Even I thought-knew that," said Icras, rolling his sightless eyes. "We're probably on the island that we passed before we were pushed off. From what Kavin said, we should move-head inland towards the plain-field." He began walking, then stopped. "I'm going the wrong way, aren't I?"

"Yep," said Ciox.

"Ah. Must be this way then." Icras turned and started walking in the correct direction.

...

"Have I ever told anyone how bad my luck is with forests and stuff?" Ciox complained.

"No, but do tell," said Ximtar sarcastically. He was being pestered by bugs, kept getting hit in the face with branches, and above all, he was being forced to _interact with idiots!_

Ciox, on the other hand, was having a (not) _wonderful_ time. He was lost. Again.

"We _are_ moving towards the center of the island, right?" he asked his companions. Somehow he had become the leader of the bunch, although he had as much of a clue as any of them as to where they were.

"Well, we took a...then Ximtar...hmmm..." said Kavin. The group passed along in silence for a second. "Nope, not a clue," said Kavin happily.

"Tree," said Wildr for the ninety-eighth time. "Left."

Icras sidestepped to the left to avoid hitting another tree. "Are we there yet?" he whined for the seventy-third time.

"I don't know! Stop asking!" Ciox turned and shouted at him.

"Okay, okay, sheesh! It was just a thought-question," Icras mumbled. "We really need a wayfinder out here."

"Look! I see something!" Singva pointed past Ciox, and Ciox could see a faint sliver of grey. His heartlight jumped. He raced forward, hoping to see what it had to be...

And there, in the center of the field, sat a huge domed stone. It was about a bio tall, a little more than the Matoran could see over. Its rounded sides had hexagonal patterns carved into them, and six slots around it carved at eye level.

"Wow," 'Wow' seemed to be one of Icras' favourite words. "It's huge! It's bigger than...me!"

"And that's supposed to be big? You make Hoto bugs look large," said Ximtar, who got a punch in the mask from Singva for his troubles.

"What is it, though?" said Wildr, who was staring at the dome in awe, while Ximtar rubbed his mask in pain.

"A...a suva?" said Ciox. "You know, like a Toa suva. The things that Matoran put rocks into to become Toa. But what's a suva doing here?"

"Maybe they left it here ahead of time, thinking to come back here with us later?" said Kavin.

"But that brings up the question that always is there: Why?" said Singva. In response, Kavin shrugged.

"Maybe it was too heavy," said Kavin.

"Heavy? On that airship, the load limit is probably–" Ciox started to say, but was cut off by Brulaz swooping down.

"OVER 9000! Yep, that baby can carry-hold a lot of cargo," he said proudly. Overhead, Romcron steered the ship directly over the field, then dropped the rope ladder. Ciox watched as he seemed to be saying something to a Matoran crew member, then the crew member saluted and Romcron made his way down the ladder. He hopped off, looking as surly as ever, while above, the airship pulled away until it was out of sight over the trees somewhere.

"Right then, to all those who haven't met him, this is Romcron. He'll be your teacher, alongside me. And, uh, about the whole pushing-you-off-the-ship thing, that was his idea. Not mine, his. He said it would be a test of your strength and teamwork, or something like that. Blame him. Um, anyway, I believe you have something for them, Romcron?" Brulaz punched the ship captain in the shoulder. He did not even flinch. Then he reached into his pack and pulled out three stones. One pulsed with yellow light, another with a greenish-blue colour, and the third was straight blue. Each glowed with light that seemed to be made inside it. Without saying a word, he tossed them to Wildr, Kavin, and Singva respectively.

"I've got some, too!" said Brulaz, pulling out three of his own. The first was pure white, the second was green, and the last one was silver. "That's for Ximtar," he tossed the white one to Ximtar, "Icras," he tossed the green one and Icras barely caught it, "and Ciox." He tossed it to Ciox with a wink.

"Place your stones into the Toa suva!" shouted Toa Romcron loudly, making them all jump. There was a nervous pause, as they all tried to figure out what to do. "DO IT!" he yelled, even louder. Each Matoran scurried in front of one of the holes in the suva as Brulaz and Romcron stepped back into the cover of the trees.

Ciox took a deep breath, then took the stone in his hand and pushed it into the hole he stood before. The rock seemed to suck it up, swallowing it until only a small silver nub remained visible in the rock face. For a moment, it seemed as if time stood still for Ciox. He looked all around at his surroundings, the expressions on his friends faces, and the Toa stone (for that of course was what it was) in front of him. This was his last moment as a Matoran, and he wanted to remember it.

Then beams of pure energy shot out from the Toa stones, striking the Matoran in their heartlights. Ciox felt like an electrical shock was flowing through his whole body, filling his limbs with power, strengthening his whole body, making him grow, even changing his mask...

Then the elemental power surged into his body with a sting like a whip, and Ciox heard a sharp yelp from Ximtar. He filed that yelp in his mind for teasing at a later date. The power that now surged through him...it was amazing! He was so powerful now! Nothing could stop him!

Then the energy cut off, and he fell back on the ground, exhausted.

...

The whole process took less than ten seconds. The time it took Ciox to wake up, however, exceeded that time by far. In four hours, he hadn't moved an inch. His chest didn't even move when he breathed. It was only Icras's hearing some tiny, slow, breaths (blindness helps heighten other senses) that prevented the others from branding him dead.

"Was I like this when I was unconscious?" asked Ximtar, Toa of Ice.

"Oh, yeah," said Kavin, Toa of the Green, making no effort to hide the truth. "Except you were snoring and drooling and you kept trying to eat the grass. You didn't even wake up when Romcron kicked you."

"No point in not doing it to him, then," said Ximtar with the smile of a Takea shark, and smashed his foot into Ciox's side full-force. Ciox snapped awake and grabbed the offending limb before Ximtar could pull it away.

"Hey, what..." Ximtar started, but Ciox yanked the leg out from under him and Ximtar toppled over.

Ciox stood up, quite wobbly on his feet. His strength was coming back a bit, or was it just his natural Toa power? He looked at his new, longer, more muscular body and smiled.

"Nice," he said. "I like it."

"You're going to have to," said Singva, Toa of Water and even prettier than before. "I have a feeling we're going to be keeping these bodies for a long time."

"Well, then, now that we're all here, how about a little battle to test ourselves?" said Ximtar, who had regained his footing, looking straight at Ciox.

"Not yet," said Toa Brulaz, stepping in. "First, you must learn the art of combat. And get your tools. You wouldn't want to battle without tools, would you?" He clapped his metal hands together twice, and a hatch on the Toa suva slid open. Inside sat a large and long chest, barely small enough to fit through the hatchway. Brulaz wheeled it out and flipped open the lid.

Inside sat many different Toa tools, each one different in its own way. Some tools seemed like they were made for a certain type of Toa, while others could have been for anyone. Each new Toa crowded around the chest, except Icras, who asked where the tools were.

"Oh, yeah, I like this one!" said Wildr, Toa of Lightning. She had found a staff with what looked like the head of some horned Rahi sitting on top. She swung it around a few times, then accidentally dropped it, panting a bit. "Alright, scratch that idea," she said. "_Way_ too heavy."

"Now what would this be used for?" said Ximtar, picking up a large grey club with holes set in it. As soon as he touched it, shades of icy blue and white rippled over the club's surface, colouring it, and blue spikes like icicles shot out of the holes.

"Interesting..." Ximtar smiled. "I think I'll keep this one. Anything for the other hand?"

Ciox was digging through the chest, but he didn't see anything. He decided to try the other end of the chest.

"Hey! This is neat!" said Kavin, pulling out a green lance with small pink thorns all over it. He swung it twice, then jabbed at a nearby tree. "Hm, not too shabby. Or heavy, for that matter," he said with a wink at Wildr. "Now what's this?"

"Hm..." Singva was thinking hard about the kind of weapons she might like. She preferred a bow and arrow, but she also might need a melee weapon...

"Hey, what's this?" Ciox said, holding up some sort of crossbow. He looked at it, but there was no way to hold it. Singva snatched it out of his hand, ignoring his annoyed yelp. She placed it on top of here arm, and an audible _SNAP_ was heard as it somehow latched on. She smiled proudly, and aimed it at the ground. She thought about firing it, and suddenly a blue, translucent arrow shimmered into the bow. There was no bowstring, but the arrow fired anyway, lodging itself in the ground.

Singva frowned. _How did I do that? _she thought. The arrow dissolved into liquid and the water seeped into the ground and disappeared. Content for the moment, Singva turned back to the chest to look for a melee weapon.

"Ooh! Ooh! MINE!" said Wildr, snatching a yellow sword faster that the eye could follow. The hilt had lightning bolt patterns on it, and the blade smelled like the air before a thunderstorm. "This is perfect for a Toa of Lightning!" she said. "Is there a matching shield?"

Icras felt his way through the chest, looking (well, not really) for something that caught his attention. His finger brushed some sort of sharp blade, and he drew his hand back with a yelp. "I scratch-cut myself," he said lamely. Ximtar groaned. Millions of Matoran in the world and he had to get stuck with the morons.

"Hey, what's that?" said Singva, pulling out a curved scimitar. The dull back of the blade was a blue wavy pattern that seemed perfect for a Toa of Water. Naturally, she took it.

Icras put his hand back in the chest and began feeling around again. His hand brushed the same blade again, but this time, he picked it up. "We meet again. This sure-must be fate. Why don't we sit down awhile and talk it over?" he was joking, of course; he was blind, not insane (which you'd have to be to talk to your blade like your lover), but Ximtar saw it as another opportunity to show off how well his eye could twitch.

"Hey, Icras, there's two of those...um, I guess they're daggers," said Ciox, handing him the second one. He took a moment to eye the daggers. They were curved, like Singva's scimitar, but both sides were sharp, and most of the blade was green.

"Ah, thank you, Ciox. Don't want to split a perfect match-pair, now, do we?" Icras joked, taking the other dagger. He weighed them in his hands. "Seem a bit weight-heavy for daggers. And long-tall," he said.

"Try holding them upside-down," said Brulaz helpfully. Icras did.

"Hm, much good-better. Now, can I slash-fight with them?"

Ciox still had not found a weapon.

"Aha! A shield! Now that could be handy," said Ximtar, taking out an large white hexagon with more icicle spikes coming from each corner. He gripped the handle and began to spar with the air. "Better than their weapons, anyway."

"Oh, goody, there's what I'm looking for!" squealed Wildr, pulling out a yellow shield that matched Ximtar's almost exactly, but the icicle spikes were replaced by lightning bolts and a large bolt sat in the center like an emblem. She held it up to her sword and shouted excitedly, "They match!"

Ciox dug to the very bottom of the chest, hoping to find _something_ remotely spear-like. He had used a spear for decades, and he wanted to keep that tradition going. Call it a weakness. He was about to give up when he spotted one. A spear. He pulled it out, grinning widely, only to find it wasn't a spear. It was a trident with a pointed end like a spear. A tiny buzz saw sat in the spot where all three points of the trident met. Figuring this was as close as it got to a spear, Ciox was happy.

"Has everybody got their weapons?" said Brulaz. Ciox noticed that Romcron was nowhere to be seen.

A resounding "YES!" met Brulaz's question.

"Alright, then I suggest that for your first day as Toa you will get used to your new weapons. You will be carrying these for as long as you are Toa, so you'd better learn to like them!" he snapped his fingers. "Now you may practice fight for as long as you want. Remember, this is not only a chance to get used to your new tools, but to your new bodies as well; how they work, move, and all that. Now get cracking."

Ciox noticed he hadn't used any tree-speak in his instructions. He wondered why, but quickly dismissed the thought. There were tools to try.

...

Later, when Ciox had gotten used to his new strength and agility, he thought of something to ask Toa Brulaz. He went over to him and asked, "When do we learn how to use our mask powers?"

"Quite soon," said Brulaz, scratching his temple as he watched Kavin and Wildr spar. "She's a nice-good spar-fighter, isn't she?" he said.

"Oh, yes, marvellous," said Ciox absentmindedly. "How soon is soon? Like an hour, tomorrow, last week..."

"I said soon. That means, sometime in the future-time." and Brulaz would say no more.

Ciox shrugged and went to leave, but then thought of another thing. "Do you know how to use a trident?" he asked. Brulaz sighed.

"I use a spear," he said. "Not a trident. I don't think-know how. But I could probably improvise," he said, taking Ciox's trident from him. He held it for a moment, then tossed it lightly from hand to hand, weighing it. "About five pounds," he said. "Quite air-light for a trident. Perhaps it's hollow? Oh well." And he launched into a complicated sequence of flips, jumps, rolls and thrusts. At one point, he rolled backward, then came to a standing position and began twirling the trident like a baton, creating a whirling ring of silver in front of him, like a shield almost. Then he snapped it into his hand, whirled around and jabbed it at Ciox. He stopped.

Ciox was amazed. "How did you do that?"

"I just copied what I do with my spear, which was a bit hard-trickier seeing as the trident has a major-big weight distribution on the ends," said Brulaz calmly, holding Ciox's trident out to him.

"You've got to teach me that sometime! It could be so useful for combat!" Ciox's eyes were aglow with awe.

"Maybe later," said Brulaz. "As in tomorrow later. The sun's fall-setting, we need to set up sleep-camp for the next few days. Now where is Romcron with that airship of his?" He held a hand over his eyes to shield them from the setting sun as he looked in the sky for the airship.

"There it is," said Ciox, pointing to a dot off to the east.

"Ah, he should be here in...oh, half an hour, I'd speak-say," said Brulaz, staring intently at the dot.

There was a pause.

"Hey, Brulaz," said Ciox. "Sorry for doubting you before. I thought you were some stupid happy-go-lucky moron who didn't know left from right. But, you're much more than a rookie, and you've got wisdom and experience in you that I could never have, so, I just want to say...thank you."

"No problem," said Brulaz, still looking at the airship. "I hope they've got eclairs."

"WHAT?"

"For dessert. I hope the cooks left us some eclairs." Brulaz was _still_ looking at the airship.

"You may not be an idiot, but you sure are a loony," muttered Ciox under his breath.

"I try," said Brulaz with a smile.

...

A few minutes after the ship had landed, the crew of the airship set to work unloading canvas tents and other supplies, like sleeping mats. They began to set them up, but Romcron stopped them.

"They're Toa now," he said. "You're Matoran. Let them do the work."

"I'm not so sure I happy-like this job anymore," said Icras.

"Oh, come on, they're only pup tents," said Singva.

"Tell you what," said Kavin, patting Icras on the shoulder. "I'll set up yours as well as mine."

"Thanks," said Icras. "You're a nice-good Toa-hero, you know that?"

Twenty minutes of manual labour later, Ciox and Icras made their way to the dessert tray that the cooks had lain out for them.

"See? I said-told you dessert would come later," said Brulaz, grinning from ear to ear. "Hm, no eclairs? Ah, but cream puffs. Almost as good."

"What's this?" said Icras, holding up a white pastry.

"It's a..." Wildr began, but Icras popped it in his mouth.

"Don't care what it is. It's good-tasty," he said, smiling.

"You've got white paste over your mouth," said Singva, wiping it off Icras' mask with a napkin.

"All the girls love blind guys," muttered Ciox jokingly.

Ximtar and Kavin ate in silence, Ximtar by choice, Kavin because his mouth was too full to say anything.

Later, after all dishes were cleared away, Romcron stood before the six new Toa and said, "Your first real day of Toa training begins tomorrow. You will wake at six o'clock in the morning and be ready for training by six thirty. IS THAT CLEAR? And there will be no more lavish meals like the one you just had. All meals will be taken in small doses. IS THAT CLEAR? Good. Now off to bed with the lot of you." and Romcron stepped into his tent and vanished. The six Toa each went off to their respective tents, Icras with a little help from Kavin. Ciox wriggled to get comfortable on the thin sheet that was the sleeping mat, then rolled over onto his stomach.

"Psst," he heard from outside. "Psst!"

Ciox stuck his head out of the tent to see who was 'psst'-ing at him. It was Kavin, who also had his head stuck out. He looked silly, and Ciox assumed he did too.

"Tomorrow's our first real day as Toa! Are you excited?" Kavin was grinning widely.

"Um, yeah," said Ciox with a laugh. "I wonder what mask power I've got?"

"I don't know either! That's the beauty of the thing!" Kavin giggled. From Romcron's tent came a loud "GO TO SLEEP! STOP CHATTERING LIKE IGNORANT BRAKAS!"

"Well, we'd better get to sleep, then. Goodnight, Toa Ciox," said Kavin with a wide grin.

"Goodnight, Toa Kavin," Ciox replied.


	6. To Heck with the Star Trek Names

**Hello again, I'm back! This chapter is more of a filler, it tells about Romcron and Brulaz's backstory because I felt you didn't know enough about them at this point. (Sorry it took so long to get up, life was interfering. Stupid life.)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bionicle. Well, technically I do own Bionicle (sets), but not the company. You know what I mean. But my original characters are mine. HA HA HA ALL YOUR OC'S ARE BELONG TO US**

Chapter Six

To Heck with the Star Trek Names

"UP! GET UP!" Romcron's overpowering bark echoed through Ciox's head. He opened his eyes, now wide awake, to see that he was in a tent, orange-tinted light illuminating its inside. At first he thought, _Since when do I sleep in a tent?_

Then he remembered the events of the previous day. A smile quickly spread across his face, and he crawled out of the tent as best he could.

Outside, the other Toa were also coming out, with mixed reactions. Kavin was grinning like a maniac and rubbing his hands together in anticipation, Wildr was standing there, waiting for Romcron to say something, Singva was cleaning her weapons, and Ximtar was scowling at their instructor. Icras was not to be seen, but his tent was bulging wildly. Ciox went over and opened the tent flap and said, "The door's over here."

"Ah. I knew that," said Icras, who (naturally) was inside, trying to get out the other end. "I just forgot."

When all the Toa were outside, Romcron looked them over and said "All right then, you lot. What you're going to learn today is the rules of combat, as in how to use your weapons without accidentally impaling yourselves. Knowing you, you probably would, too. In any case, you must learn how _not_ to kill yourself. Watch."

And with a simple gesture, a long iron staff with a cylindrical club on the end materialized in Romcron's hand. _His Toa tool,_ thought Ciox. _Fitting that his tool be made of iron, so he can summon and abandon it at will._

Romcron began to hit and pound away at a tree, each blow different from the last. He ducked and dodged invisible blows while still managing to hit the enemy. He bent over backward almost double while curling his staff around so it hit the tree sideways. He then began a series of flips and jumps, and executed a spin that the most agile Toa of Air would have admired. As he spun in the air, he held his staff so that it pounded the tree every time he made a revolution. When his spin was finished, the tree cracked and fell over with a thud. All watching were amazed at his display, except for Ximtar, who scoffed.

"Mere child's play," he said with a superior overtone. "Is that all you can do?"

Ciox was expecting Romcron to turn on Ximtar now and do as he'd done with the tree. Instead, Romcron glanced at the staff in his hand, which shrunk until it disappeared entirely. "You are correct, if you are out of place," he said cooly. Ciox suspected that being snapped in two for insults would seem tame next to the punishment that Romcron was about to inflict. "That display was a simple thing for a talented warrior like I. Once Brulaz and I have finished with you all, you shall be able to do that and more." Ciox thought that perhaps Ximtar had escaped Romcron's wrath, but those thoughts were dashed when Romcron scowled at Ximtar. "However, for speaking out of turn, you...will be the dummy upon which your teammates will practice."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" said Brulaz, charging into the clearing with an armful of wood. "Isn't that a little deep-harsh, Brother? All he did was speak-talk out of turn!"

"He disobeyed an order," said Romcron.

"Since when is 'Say nothing at all to anybody' one of your command-orders?" Brulaz frowned. Ciox noticed this was the first time Brulaz had seemed upset.

"Since now. These Toa must know discipline."

"Discipline? That's just plain cruelty!" Brulaz's frown had become a full-fledged scowl, and threatened to become anger. He turned to the Toa and began to shoo them away. "Go on, we'll sort this out." He turned back to Romcron again. Quieter, so only Romcron could hear between them, he said, "Myus was right, you are as stubborn and dense as the element you control."

Romcron grabbed Brulaz by the top of his chest armour and seethed, "I warned you never to speak of her again!"

"Well I have now, haven't I?" spat Brulaz, utterly unintimidated. "What will you do-say about it?"

It was at that time that Ciox got out of earshot.

...

The six Toa sat in a circle in a nearby clearing to talk.

"Rude-mean sounding Toa-hero, that Romcron," said Icras.

"I hope Brulaz beat him up," said Ximtar with a bitter tone. "What a pompous jerk he is, telling you all to beat me up because of some stupid rule he made up on the spot."

"I wonder if there's a reason behind his coldness?" said Wildr.

"Well," said Ciox, and 4 pairs of eyes turned to him (Icras didn't bother). "As we were leaving, I heard them talking about some girl. She may have had something to do with it. I think Brulaz called her Mews..."

"Myus?" said Singva with a gasp.

"You've heard of her?" said Kavin.

"Yeah," replied Singva. "She lived on my old island of Voya Nui. It was many years ago now, probably a hundred or more. She was one of my closest friends. We were so close, some people began to think we were related. She was a Ga-Matoran, like me, naturally. Then, one day when I went to visit her, she wasn't home. Nobody knew where she was. I suppose she must have been taken away in the night by some people and she went travelling with those two Toa. Maybe she became a Toa too, and went off with some other team, I don't know."

No one had anything to say for a moment as it all sunk in. Then Kavin piped up, "So, I guess we should be heading back to the campground and see if everything is sorted out?"

"Yes, I suppose we should," said Wildr, standing up to go.

...

The Toa walked back into the camp to see Brulaz sitting alone in the center of the tents, which were arranged in a sort of semi-circle around him. He sat cross-legged, saying nothing, making little noise. Ciox walked over to him to see if he was awake and saw that Brulaz's eyes were closed, his brow furrowed. He shook Brulaz, and he snapped awake with a jolt.

"Sorry," he said, looking at Ciox. "Just reliving old memories of a dark-bad time." Brulaz stood up and looked at the other five Toa. He sighed, then said, "I suppose you all should know why you have been treated so awful-badly. Very well, and don't worry, no tree-speak will be used," he said, then beckoned for them to sit down, which they did. Ciox noticed how solemn he looked.

"This is what happened fifty years ago, on a night where dark was the norm, and the moon hid its face among shrouding clouds.

"I was part of a team of eight Toa, Romcron included. Back then, Romcron was not as cold and unforgiving, in fact, he was the jokester of our team. Another member of our team was a Toa of Water, Myus." Singva gasped, and Brulaz looked at her momentarily before resuming his story. "She and Romcron got along very well, in fact more than well. They were suspected by the rest of the team to be secret lovers, a fact we teased him with frequently, though he always denied it. The two Toa even had arguments about some things, just to try to throw the rest of us off track.

"We were going out on a request from the Matoran of the island to stop a group of renegade Matoran who had formed their own army against the local government. Our orders were to stop them, but not kill them. We had figured this would be a simple task.

"When these Matoran came into sight, we saw that they had not just rebelled against their government, but invented their own weapons of destruction. Knowing we would be coming to fight them, they had invented a laser that could drain a being of almost all of his elemental power, and while they were at it, natural strength. While we were still wondering how in the world they did that, they drained the power of our Toa of Earth and Fire, and were literally left powerless to stop them. It was then they seemed to realise they had a chance, and some leapt up to attack the two Toa while others continued firing the lasers at us.

"The lasers struck the rest of our group until only the three of us remained, the others captured by the rebel Matoran. One particularly inventive Matoran had put his laser on wheels, and snuck it around behind Myus. By the time we heard the laser fire, it was too late, Myus was drained. Romcron and I were too far away to help.

"But then came the worst part. Some of the Matoran had grown tired of their leader's commands to capture the Toa, and began attacking Myus with all their strength. Romcron began to rip and roar through the crowd of Matoran, but as he reached Myus, a De-Matoran had leapt on her chest with the intention of striking a finishing blow. Romcron tried to hit him out of the way, but the Matoran drove his knife into her body before the blow collided. Romcron was devastated at the loss of his friend, and even though we won and regained our other friends, he was absorbed in his own self-pity. Our friends, just so you know, one by one decided to strike out on their own or join other Toa teams. Anyway, Romcron's self-pity eventually grew into anger and lack of social skills, and he felt that since he was unhappy, everyone else should be as well. I decided to give him another chance by allowing him to pilot the airship and train the lot of you, but it appears he is not up to the task..."

"I am now, brother," said Romcron, stepping from the shadows. "And I promise you, my punishments will never be that intense."

"Brother!" Brulaz grinned, though Ciox was still reeling in shock at the story. So that was why Romcron hated De-Matoran. "You're back!"

"Yes, and I've made peace with myself. Never again will I inflict my grief upon others. It is mine and mine alone, no one else should be forced to share it." Romcron gave a sly smirk. "Though you Toa will still have to work harder than ever to master your new Toa powers. They don't come cheap, I assure you."

Singva's face fell. "Oh, goody," she said. "But...Myus died?" Romcron visibly winced at the name.

"Yes...she died. Can we move on now?" he said sharply.

"Romcron," Brulaz said in a warning tone.

"Sorry."

"It's just...she was my best friend, and she's dead, and...wow."

"Yes, we get it, she was a Toa, she died, yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah. Can we move on now?" Romcron was doing his best to not raise his voice, but his annoyance showed plainly on his mask.


	7. The Way of the Toa

**Well, I've now got chapter seven up. Please enjoy, and if you are reading this, PLEASE REVIEW. I love those things like candy. OM NOM NOM. Sorry this hasn't been updated for a while, I just got Super Mario Galaxy 2 and have been playing for a while. CURSE YOU, YOU ADDICTING GAME, YOU! The Toa go off on quests to find their mask/elemental powers. Not saying anything else. Anyway, (please review) here's chapter (review!) seven. (Just click the review button...^-^)**

Chapter Seven:

The Way of the Toa

Since Brulaz had told his story, exactly one month had passed. During that month, each new Toa had learned how to fight in hand-to-hand combat with their Toa tools. Some had even learned to use their weapons in different ways. For example, Kavin once ran at an opponent (tree), stuck his lance in the ground, and pole-vaulted towards it feet-first. The manoeuver had cracked the tree, causing Kavin to flinch and say quietly, "Sorry."

Ciox remembered that moment with a grin. They had all come so far from when they were brand-new Toa, just a few hours old and stumbling around like idiots. Romcron had kept his promise, and Ximtar's real punishment was to be the one who cleaned up after dinner. Naturally, Romcron ordered a six-course feast in honour of the new Toa. Since then, though, food was rationed, and a good square meal consisted of a fruit and some water. "It will help keep your bodies strong, and not laden down with excess tissue," Romcron explained.

Today, one month from their first day of training, was the day the six Toa would find out how to use their mask powers. "But shouldn't we find-learn our Toa-hero powers first?" asked Icras.

"No," said Brulaz. "With happy-luck, you should find-learn those on your own."

"You know, someday I'm going to write a dictionary of tree-speak," Ximtar grumbled. "No more feeling my way through sentences."

"In order to find your mask powers, which I think Brulaz and I already know, you will each split up into groups of two..." As each Toa began to grin at one another, thinking of who would be their partner, Romcron said, "...which we've taken the liberty of choosing for you." The Toa's shoulders sagged.

"Icras, you're with Singva, Wildr, you're with Ciox, and Ximtar, you're with Kavin. That is all from me." Romcron gestured to Brulaz. "Brother, you may explain."

"Thanks, Romcron," said Brulaz like he was an Akilini tournament announcer. "The situation today is that each Toa-team must go to a certain place-part of the island which suits your specific Kanohi-mask power the best. Many of these places involve angry Rahi-beasts, so keep a close eye on your back. Each team has a specific direction to go in. Team Icras, you go right-east, team Wildr, you go up-north, and team Ximtar, you go left-west."

"I like the sound of this 'Team Ximtar' stuff," said Ximtar. "Maybe that could be the name for our Toa team."

"Not on your life," said Brulaz, never actually looking at Ximtar. "Now, Toa...Move out!"

"Why did you have to say that?" said Romcron quietly to Brulaz.

Brulaz cracked a grin. "Felt like it," he replied.

So, each Toa went out, confident in their powers and excited about finding their mask power, which (oddly) none of them actually knew beforehand. We will focus on each team individually, so, we will start with team Icras.

...

"So...any idea-thought of what to do now?" Icras asked his teammate as they tramped through the underbrush.

"Not a one. I don't even know what mask I've got," replied Singva.

Icras snorted his approval. "Join the band-club," he said. "Clues? You would be much-very appreciated right now!"

"I severely doubt that just because you ask them to, big orange balloons labelled 'CLUES' are going to pop up from behind a rock," Singva smiled. Icras didn't notice, but she smiled anyway.

Icras felt a sudden scratch to his thigh armour and whirled around. "It's just a shrub with thorns," said Singva as Icras readied his daggers.

"Oh. I thought-knew that," Icras said sheepishly, slinging his weapons across his back again. As the two Toa walked deeper into the underbrush, neither of them noticed that the shrub was following.

...

Ximtar had not said a word since he'd left the camp. Kavin, on the other hand, wouldn't shut up to save his life.

"Do you know what mask power you've got? No? Neither do I. I hope mine is useful to the team. What do you hope yours is, Ximtar? I hope mine's a Kanohi Hau, Mask of Shielding." That was said in one breath before Kavin took in another.

"I hope mine is a Mask of Silence so I can SHUT YOU UP!" yelled Ximtar, then slapped a hand to his face. "Mata Nui, why do you talk so much?"

"Because there's so much to talk about!" replied Kavin with a grin.

"I've got an idea. Let's play, 'How Long Can We Hold Our Breath Before We're Blue In The Face?" Ximtar growled back.

"Nah, sounds boring. Hey, what's that up ahead?"

Ximtar peered through the space between trees and saw a sliver of silver that seemed to ripple and move. "If it's silver, it must be...protodermis? Are we at the ocean already?"

The two Toa stepped out onto the sandy beach on the edge of the ocean. Kavin whistled as he looked at the vast watery plain. "It's huge!" he said.

"Yes, I think you knew that already," said Ximtar.

"Yeah, but think of all the plant life under the ocean! My command of plants spreads far and wide! How cool is that?"

As Kavin was talking, he failed to see a black shape swiftly worming its way through the water towards the beach.

...

Can you guess what was happening to Ciox?

Yep, he was lost again.

"I can't believe this!" he shouted to Wildr, who he was getting more comfortable with talking to. "How long have we been out here?"

"About three minutes," said Wildr.

"AND I'M ALREADY LOST!" Ciox yelled. "We'd better hurry up and find out our mask powers so we can get back to the camp."

"I don't know about that," said Wildr. "Mask powers aren't just the kind of thing you can immediately activate. We may need to be in some sort of peril before they turn on."

"Yeah, but how do we do that?"

"Don't you know?" said Wildr with a grin. "Trouble follows Toa."

"What's that up ahead?" Ciox pointed to a large crack in the ground ahead. The two Toa hurried over to have a look down. The crevice seemed to be unending. The only bottom they could see was pure darkness. When Wildr dropped a nearby rock into it, they listened for the echo, but it never came.

"Weird," said Wildr. "What would cause this?"

"Some sort of really bad bioquake?" said Ciox.

"Then why aren't there other signs?" Wildr asked. All the trees around them were perfectly fine, no quake damage whatsoever, and there were certainly no other cracks.

Behind them, a Rahi goat snorted and readied its horns to pound the two territory intruders.

...

"Icras, it's following us."

Icras turned his head behind him, but (obviously) couldn't see anything. "What's stalk-following us?"

"The bush. I swear I just saw it move." Singva was frozen in place, not daring to make a move.

"What bush?"

"The bush that scratched you." The bush shifted. "There, it moved again."

"You're crazy-mad," Icras scoffed.

The bush suddenly burst out into a flurry of thorns, branches, and leaves, completely obscuring Icras from Singva.

"Icras!" she cried.

"What?" he said, totally oblivious to the whirling mass around him.

"The bush! It's really a Rahi!" Singva shouted, but as she did so, the Rahi that had been camouflaging itself as a prickly bush leapt onto Icras' back.

"What the heck is that?" he cried, scrambling to get the thing off. It was no bigger that Icras' back, and was a light brown colour, like the branches in the whirlwind around them. "I hear a shriek-whistling, what's it doing?"

"It's conjured a whirlwind and its camouflage is now blocking my view!"

"Darn it!" Icras said. "It's on my back and I can't reach my dagger-blades!" He began what would have looked like a mad dance in a circle to an outsider in order to shake the thing off.

Icras stumbled into the middle of the wind the creature had conjured. The Rahi, unused to being subjected to its own power, fell off his back, but Icras was swept away in the whirlwind.

Singva saw him spin about once, twice, three times. She made forward to grab his foot and yank him out of the wind, but suddenly it died down, and the all of the Rahi's camouflage fell to the ground. As Icras fell to the ground, the little Rahi scampered away, deciding these big creatures weren't worth the effort. Icras lay in a pile of leaves, shaken, but not stirring (ha ha). Singva rushed over to him.

"Did you do that?" she asked.

Icras opened his sightless eyes and said softly, "I guess this means I'm a true Toa, now, huh?"

Singva smiled. "Icras, you just stopped a whirlwind! With your own Toa power!"

Icras smiled and started to sit up, but a pain in his back made him sit down again. "That wasn't me, though. I think the Rahi just flick-switched off the wind-power. But was I help-starting to do that on my own?" He groaned. "Only hurt-problem is, I fell on my back.," he said.

"Don't worry, I'll..." Singva stopped. Her mask was glowing.

"What are you..." Icras couldn't finish either, as he felt his body wrapped in a warm sensation. What Singva saw was Icras being wrapped in a blue glow identical to the one on her mask. As soon he felt it, he instantly began to feel better. He sat up again, and no pain jolted him back down. The glow on Singva's mask faded, and Icras smiled. "What was that?" he asked.

"My mask power..." said Singva in awe. "The power of healing!"

...

"Kavin, get behind it!" Ximtar yelled as the two struggled against the huge black shark. It resembled a Takea shark, but it had two legs with fins on the calves and had arms with large fins on the elbows. It was like a cross between a Takea and a Toa. A Tokea.

Kavin rolled behind the Tokea and grabbed its leg with his free hand. "Gotcha!" he cried in triumph. The Tokea didn't care, though, it just began to run, dragging Kavin behind it. "AAAHHHHH!" Kavin yelled.

"I got it!" Ximtar rushed up to the monster, ready to crack it over the head with his club, but it backhanded him into the water. Kavin had to release his grip or get pounded into sand.

"That thing is powerful, eh?" Kavin said to his teammate, lying in the shallows.

"Yeah," Ximtar replied, spitting out liquid protodermis. "How can we defeat it?"

"With our mask powers," Kavin smiled.

"Brilliant," Ximtar snapped. "And how do you propose we do that?"

"I have no idea," said Kavin cheerfully as the Tokea turned for another attack. Ximtar leapt out of the water just as the beast swiped at him. He landed on the beach, but it swiped his legs from under him with its long tail. He toppled to the ground. The Tokea stood over him, ready to stomp him into the ground. It lifted its foot and brought it down.

Amazingly enough, Ximtar was not hurt. He could see his mask was glowing white, and his body was twisted at an impossible angle around the Tokea's foot.

Before he got to the thought, "How in the world did I do that," Ximtar rolled away from the Tokea. As he stood up, the Tokea took another swipe at him. Ximtar bent his body over backward, so that his head was touching the ground, and the swipe passed harmlessly over him. He bent his arm back onto the ground and kicked upward with both feet, knocking away the Tokea's arm and balancing on only his shield. The monster staggered backward, not expecting the blow. Kavin rushed over.

"How in the world did you do that?" he said in awe, a grin the size of Saskatchewan on his face.

"I don't know," said Ximtar. "I guess it was the mask." He pointed at the glowing Kanohi on his face.

"Now that is cool. But that monster is only surprised, not out. Think we should attack again?"

Ximtar grinned back at Kavin, pessimism set aside in the euphoria of finding his mask power. "Let's," he said, mask glowing with a newfound light.

...

If Ciox thought he'd been lost before, he was totally, helplessly lost now. The Rahi goat had butted them directly into the crevice, and the two Toa had fallen for what had seemed like hours before finally landing–hard–on some kind of soft plant that didn't seem to need the sun. If it hadn't been for the softness of the plants, the Toa would be nothing more than mush right then. There had been nothing to see in the crevice, but Wildr had found a cave at the one end of the crevice. The two rookie Toa began walking through the cave, hoping it would slant upwards toward the surface, but so far, they'd been going in one direction: down.

"Any brilliant ideas?" asked Ciox.

"Not a one," said Wildr. "Hopefully one of us has a Mask of Levitation, or a Mask of Night Vision at least. It's as dark down here as it was in the volcano."

"I don't think so," said Ciox. "I don't know what my mask does, but I'm quite sure a Toa of Sonics or a Toa of Lightning wouldn't get stuck with either of those masks. Levitation is good for Air Toa, and Night Vision for Earth Toa."

"I guess you're right," said Wildr. Then Ciox heard a click as she snapped her fingers. "But I'm a Toa of Lightning! Lightning equals light. Light equals we know where we are. Knowing where we are equals us finding a way out of here!"

"Any idea how to activate these lightning powers of yours?" grumbled Ciox. Wildr began doing some random movements with her fingers, attempting even a simple spark. She flicked them, waved them around, strained them, but nothing happened.

Then, after about ten minutes of trial and tribulation, a spark lazily drifted out of Wildr's outstretched palm.

"I did it! I did it!" she yelled, breaking the silence.

"Did what? Did what?" replied Ciox.

"I made a spark!" Ciox turned around to see a tiny, faint spark drifting about in front of Wildr.

"That's great! Amazing! Wonderful! Astounding! And besides, its rather good, too," said Ciox, grinning from ear to ear. Wildr's smile, lit up in the light of the spark, matched Ciox's.

"Only problem is, can I do it again?" said Wildr as the spark fizzled out. She tried again, concentrating, imagining the elemental power flowing from her fingers...

A thin bolt of lightning shot out of her hand, narrowly missing Ciox's shoulder and striking the Nui-Jaga in the stinger. It hissed in pain and began moving slowly and angrily towards Ciox and Wildr, who in turn began backing away.

"How did you do that?" said Ciox.

"I just...well, I pictured the power in my head, and lightning shot out of me. I guess there was a Nui-Jaga or something in front of us, and now I've made it mad!" The Nui-Jaga punctuated Wildr's statement by lunging at the two Toa. The tunnel was too small for dodging, and Wildr heard Ciox fall with a thud as the Rahi tackled him. "Ciox!" she shouted, although that did little good.

A faint silver glow came from Ciox's direction, and a moment later, a black and white Rahkshi sprang up from where Ciox was lying, the Nui-Jaga on the end of its staff. The Rahkshi activated its power, and a mad cyclone whirled out of the end of the staff, throwing the Rahi far down the tunnel. It scrambled up, screeched, and sped off.

Wildr looked at this new entity beside her. "Is...is that you, Ciox?"

"It is definitely me in this body," said Ciox's voice, sounding quite creepy coming from a Rahkshi's head. "But my new form is my mask's doing."

"Cool. So, now you're in control of the Rahkshi's powers?"

"Yeah," said Ciox, weighing the staff in both hands. "I just concentrated, like you did, on the staff, and the next thing I know there' s a tornado coming out one end."

"So do you know how to change back?" asked Wildr.

"Um, no. That's my only problem. Maybe if I concentrate on my mask, or where it used to be..." Ciox strained his 'face', trying to get a reaction. After a moment, he gave up. "Nope, nothing. I don't know, maybe Brulaz of Romcron will know something."

"In any case, let's get out of here," said Wildr. "I see light up ahead."

Sure enough, there was light. Oddly enough, though, was that the light came from the ceiling. Had the Nui-Jaga burrowed out or something?

"Right, let's go," said Ciox, rubbing his Rahkshi hands together.


	8. Stupid Rahi

**Hi, it's me again, your friendly neibourhood fanfic writer! (note: please do not think any worse of me for that OM NOM NOM comment from the last chapter, I was tired.) Seriously though, do give me some reviews. It helps me think that people are actually reading this. ^-^ Yeah, we still don't see Brulaz or Romcron in this one, but we're getting there! Work on Chapter Nine is in progress, and should be up by next week (that's the 23rd of August). Anyhoo, I should stop yapping and let you enjoy Chapter Eight, so I will! Enjoy!**

Chapter Eight

Stupid Rahi

Ximtar's battle with the Tokea wasn't going very well. Sure, he could dodge any incoming attacks in impossible ways, but he also couldn't land any attacks of his own, he was too busy dodging. He rolled in close, raising his club as he stood for an uppercut, but the Tokea swiped at him, forcing him to dodge again and back off momentarily.

Meanwhile, Kavin wasn't having much luck either. He wasn't dodging as well as Ximtar, and the Tokea had landed a solid blow to his right arm, rendering his lance arm useless, as well as his lance. He had ditched his lance in the sand and was attempting to fight with fisticuffs. The Tokea's natural armour made this attempt impossible. Kavin swung his armoured fist again, but it bounced off the armour with a _dong_, like the Tokea was hollow. _That's weird_, thought Kavin, but the Tokea lashed at him with it's tail again, breaking his chain of thought. He quickly dodged by jumping over it, then backed off to regroup with Ximtar.

"This thing is impossible," said Ximtar, his natural pessimism returning. "We're just rookies who've never been in a battle before! There's no way we can win against this thing."

"You know, I'd like my next sentence to start with, 'I have an idea', but it doesn't seem likely," said Kavin brightly.

"Go for the head," said Ximtar, hefting his club and shield. "The weakness is always the head."

"The head or the eyes," said Kavin. "I have an idea. You go for the head, I'll see if I can jab it's eyes. Between us we should find its weakness."

"What happened to 'it doesn't seem likely'?" said Ximtar.

"I suppose I lied," Kavin smiled, and charged forward to attack. "Oh, and don't forget about your Mask of Super-Dodginess!"

"I really doubt that's its official name," mumbled Ximtar, rushing forward as well.

...

"This healing thing could be ever-useful," said Icras, standing up. "But, if it heals things, why didn't it heal my eyesight?"

"I don't know," said Singva, rising too. "I guess it's because I'm not very good at using my mask, and I just kind of looked at your wounds and wished I could help heal them somehow. I wasn't thinking about healing your eyesight."

"Well, no matter-problem, then," said Icras cheerfully. "We can heal those later, when you're great-better. Now, where should we go from here?"

"How about over towards that rock formation?" Singva said, pointing. A large cluster of boulders sat in a mishmash pile, a little ways beyond the forest.

"Hear-sounds as good a rest-place as any," said Icras, rubbing his hands together. "Lead the way."

Singva took Icras' hand, making him jump in surprise, then guided him around the trees towards the rocks. "How did these rocks get here?" Singva mumbled as she looked at the clumped obelisk. "There's no cliffs around for them to have fallen off of."

"Did you speak-say something, Singva?" asked Icras.

"Hm? Oh, uh, just wondering about these boulders. They're not natural. By all the laws of nature, they shouldn't be here." Singva stopped, releasing Icras' hand. He continued walking before Singva grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

"In that case, how did they get here?" Icras questioned.

"I have no idea," said Singva.

You've probably guessed by now that something's not right with these rocks. If you have, then feel free to give yourself a cookie.

The rocks shifted.

Singva spotted the movement out of the corner of her eye, and whirled to se the rocks tumbling to the ground. Each seemed to be about the same size and shape, and they all had flat bottoms. "Now that is definitely not natural," said Singva, readying her scimitar in case the rocks attacked, which seemed a little silly in hindsight.

"What's not natural?" said Icras, and Singva relayed the description of the boulders to Icras.

"Get your daggers ready," Singva said, trying to sound heroic and leader-like, but failing miserably.

"Why?"

"They, um, could attack," Singva said lamely, realizing how dumb it was.

"They probably just happened to tumble-fall down. No need to be shock-scared," Icras said, making no move to unstrap his weapons.

"Yeah, like the bush we just fought 'happened' to follow us."

` "Very true," said Icras, grabbing his daggers and twirling them.

"Nice twirl."

"Thank you."

The rocks, as one, flipped backward to reveal that the bottom portion of their bodies held giant mouths and definitely carnivorous teeth. Sinister red eyes with no pupils glared at them menacingly, and Singva gasped.

"What? I heard something!" said Icras, looking over in Singva's general direction.

"The rocks are monsters!" shouted Singva, and as if on cue, the boulder rolled forward expertly to attack.

...

"Would you hurry up and turn back already?" Wildr snapped at Ciox.

"Sorry," said Ciox, still in his black-and-white Rahkshi form. "I haven't figured out how yet."

"Well, please do, because that hole isn't going to get any bigger!"

The hole that the two Toa had found leading up to the surface had been revealed to be a tinge to small for the Toa and Rahkshi-Toa to climb up, making Wildr cranky at _still_ not being able to get out.

"Well, maybe if I can shoot a cyclone up there, it would knock away some loose soil and make a bigger hole," said Ciox, his forty-third idea.

"No," said Wildr, also for the forty-third time. "That also could bring down a ton of dirt on our heads. Next idea!"

Ciox was also getting cranky, what with having all of his ideas shot down and being a Rahkshi, sworn enemy of Toa everywhere.

"How do you suggest we get out then?"

"We climb it, naturally." This was Wildr's original and only idea, and she was sticking by it.

"It's too small," repeated Ciox. He had said that before.

"Well then we need to make it bigger!"

"And here we are, come back full circle. I say we need another plan."

"I don't care what you say, I'm going to try my idea!" Wildr grabbed the edges of the hole and started to pull herself up. She managed to get her head in, but her shoulders were just a few inches too wide. She fell back down again.

"Fine, I give up. Let's try your idea."

Ciox smiled, making Wildr recoil at the expression on a Rahkshi head, then pointed the Rahkshi staff into the hole. He closed his eyes and imagined a tornado firing out of the end of the staff. When he opened his eyes, there it was, whirling and spinning above his staff as it travelled up through the shaft, drawing in soil off of the walls. Most of it was caught in the cyclone, but some didn't quite catch in the pull of the wind, and fell down, bouncing off Wildr's shield (which she had raised protectively over her head).

By the time the gust of wind had jetted out the other end of the shaft, the hole was much bigger, big enough for both the Toa and the Rahkshi-Toa to climb out. Ciox gestured to the newly renovated hole.

"I think you can try that climbing trick again."

...

"Does everything on this island want to slay-kill us?"

Singva and Icras were now fighting a bunch of evil carnivorous boulders that kept trying to alternately eat and crush them. Being rocks, their tools were having very little effect, and Icras was very close to being crushed to death. His only defense was the fact that he was flailing wildly with his daggers, and the boulders seemed afraid of coming anywhere near him.

Singva, on the other hand, was striking the boulders with practised accuracy, and if you couldn't see into her mind, you'd swear she was calm as the sea on a good day. If you could, by some odd stroke of luck, see into her thoughts, you'd know she was thinking, _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!_ Being her first fight, Singva had abandoned all other strategies for the simple 'kill everything with my big sword'.

The boulders, being conscious beings, were also thinking, but it was more primitive thinking, like, _Crush. Eat. Crush. Eat. PAIN! CRUSHCRUSHCRUSH! _Being boulders, they liked crushing things, but unlike normal boulders they severely disliked pain.

"Singva!" shouted Icras over the rumbling of the rocks moving around. "How many are there?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" she yelled, bringing her sword down on another boulder, which quickly rolled away.

"What?"

"Seven!"

"Oh. Is this a rock-monster?"

"No, that's a tree. Behind you!"

The boulders were getting a little more daring now, drawing nearer even though the dangerous things were still attacking with their sharp tools. Icras quickly rolled out of the way of a boulder who decided to change tactics and start biting the two Toa instead. When he heard the _thunk_ of the boulder-beast's teeth lodging in the tree, he slashed with his dagger. The boulder-beast was sent flying, crashing into two of its comrades.

Singva hefted her bow, and an arrow materialized in it. She fired it, and the blue dart shot toward the boulder beast that Icras had hit. The boulder-beast opened it's mouth in surprise, and the arrow flew right in, sticking in the back of its throat. Singva mentally tugged at the arrow, and it exploded.

Now, being made of pure water, it shouldn't have done so, but Singva did it anyway.

Anyways, it exploded, cracking the boulder-beast from inside. Icras swooped in towards the source of the sound, and with a good solid hit from his dagger, the boulder-beast shattered.

"That was a good sound, right?" said Icras. The other boulder-beasts, seeing their fellow comrade dead, realized that easy-to-kill meals were extremely rare these days and fled.

"Now where's the rest of them?" said Icras, going back to swiping madly.

"They ran away," said Singva.

"Oh. That was rather anti-climactic, then, eh?"

"I guess."

...

Meanwhile, Ciox and Wildr had managed to get out of the crevice they had been trapped in. Ciox had still not figured out how to shut of his mask, and therefore was still gallivanting around as a Rahkshi. Now that Wildr could see him in broad daylight, she was even more appalled than before. They were standing at the edge of the forest, and before they lay a wide stretch of sand and ocean.

"I, uh, suppose we should keep walking, then," said Wildr, trying not to make eye contact with her Rahkshi comrade.

"I suppose we should," replied Ciox, and the two Toa continued their search around the island, this time walking along the beach. Ciox thought this could be taken by one of the other Toa as some sort of excuse to get romantic with Wildr, but then he remembered just whose body he was in.

"Um, do you have any idea where we're going?" asked Ciox.

"Nope, not really. We walked a really long way underground. For all I know, we could be about to run into the other Toa, who all went off in _entirely separate directions from us_." Wildr shrugged. "That's how well my sense of direction works."

"And mine's even worse. This is not good. We'll be lost in three...two...one..." Ciox looked at the sky and shouted at the top of his lungs, "WE'RE LOST AGAIN!"

A soft roar answered his shout.

"Um, what was that?" asked Wildr, not really expecting a competent answer.

"A roar," answered Ciox.

"Yes, thank you so much for that logic, but a roar from _what_, exactly?" Wildr would have given him a light smack on the head, but she didn't want to touch a Rahkshi.

"A Rahi?"

"And once again proving Toa's advantage over the wild beasts: _intelligence_."

"Well, excuse me for not knowing!" Ciox shot back, not really meaning it. He knew that the only reason they were 'arguing' was because they had no idea what they were about to see and thus were rather nervous. Nui-Jaga aren't the most formidable of opponents (though when they are in a pack, then they are a force to be reckoned with), so the two newbie Toa were nervous about what could possibly be their toughest Rahi battle so far.

Naturally, they ran right towards it, as it is Toa nature to jump into things without giving them any thought.


	9. Avast, Ye Seabeast

**HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! (Super Smash Bros./Kirby=win) Sorry if you've read this already but missed this new update; I forgot to do the author's note again. Bad habit of mine. By the way, you may notice that in the upcoming chapter (yes, Chapter Ten is on the way...hopefully...) I portray Romcron as a Toa of Iron. This is not a mistake; I wanted him to be a Toa of Iron from when I first conceived him, I just screwed up when Brulaz introduced him. Or perhaps Brulaz screwed up! Yeah, that's totally it. It's totally Brulaz's fault.**

**Brulaz: It was not!...Well, maybe it was a slick-slip of the tongue...**

**I think I also mentioned him doing something with iron in one of the previous chapters anyway. Ah well. I'm going to fix that anyway, I just wanted to clear it with everybody who actually reads this. How many of you are there exactly? ^-^* (that's supposed to be a sweat drop face.) If you haven't read this already, enjoy!**

Chapter Nine: Avast, Ye Seabeast

"GRAAAAAAAAR!" shouted Kavin, who was, once again, rushing into the battle without giving any thought to a plan. The Tokea barely noticed him, backhanding him into ocean while still keeping its eyes trained on Ximtar, who seemed to be posing more of a threat to the Tokea's primitive mind.

Ximtar stared warily at the black sea-beast standing before him. In his mind, he went over strategies, a move that had won him many a spar in training.

_If I just rush it blindly, I'll end up knocked flat like Kavin. I guess he's not as good as I thought he was,_ thought Ximtar. The Tokea growled loudly and dropped to all fours. _Damn it, no time for strategy now, move, move, move!_

The Tokea charged straight at him, snarling and baring razor sharp shark fangs. As he jumped out of the way, his Kanohi adding an extra seven feet to the jump, he thought, _Since when do either Toa or Takea charge like Kane-Ra?_ As he landed, far away from the Tokea, the Tokea swivelled its hindquarters around so it was now facing in his direction and charged again. Ximtar just dodged again, and the mass of muscle tissue barrelled past him. _This isn't good,_ thought Ximtar. _With Kavin splayed out in the ocean, I'm on my own over here! I can't get a hit in edgewise! I could really use some help right now..._(Give him a hand folks, that was probably extremely hard to accept.)

Just then, a Rahkshi rushed in.

...

"What the hell is that thing?" Wildr shouted as she and Ciox ran up the beach. Looking ahead, Ciox saw a giant black monster fighting two of his fellow Toa. From the colour of their armour, it was Kavin and Ximtar. Ciox watched as the monstrosity casually backhanded Kavin, sending him flying into the ocean. It then charged at Ximtar, who jumped about ten feet backward.

"What was that?" said Ciox, doubling his pace.

"Probably something to do with his mask or something!" called Wildr, who had been left behind and was now struggling to catch up. The beast charged Ximtar again, making Ciox's heart leap, but Ximtar dodged again.

Ciox rushed forward.

"What the hell? Now there's a Rahkshi, too?" Ximtar yelled in disbelief. He hefted his club and threw it straight at Ciox's head. Lucky for Ciox, he ducked under it, but it still grazed his back spines. From where it landed in the sand, he grabbed it in his free hand. Ximtar, meanwhile, dodged another charge.

"Ximtar! That's Ciox! It's just his mask power that makes him like this!" Wildr shouted, running up beside Ciox. Ximtar somersaulted out of harm's way again, and rolled to a stop in front of Wildr. The Tokea took a moment to catch its breath.

"Well, then why don't you change back to being a Toa again? Although, you look a lot more handsome in this form," Ximtar couldn't resist a jab.

"I don't know how," said Ciox lamely, tossing Ximtar his club.

"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but what are you going to do about Mr. Big and Ugly over there?" shouted Ximtar.

"I'll distract him. Ximtar, you get around behind him and try to bash his head with your club." Before anyone could argue with Wildr's plan, she ran off.

"Okay, then," said Ximtar, not very happy to be taking orders from a rookie, but he snuck around behind the Tokea anyway. Ciox took this moment to try and figure out how to shut off his mask.

"Hey, pond scum!" shouted Wildr, and the Tokea's gaze immediately shot over to her. "Yeah, your, um, mother's so ugly, that, uh..." Wildr wasn't very good at insults. Luckily she didn't have to be. The monster roared angrily, interpreting the insulting tone, and was about to charge when a mask-propelled Ximtar shot up and over its back, and landed a good solid blow right on the sea-beast's crown. Ximtar fell back onto the sand with a _pluff_.

Then something rather unexpected occurred. The dent in the Tokea's skull almost immediately healed up.

"Oh, that can't be good," murmured Wildr.

...

Ciox closed his eyes and concentrated on his mask, willing it to switch off. Nothing happened. He concentrated on his current form, trying to force it out. Again with the nothing.

Then he tried something new. He focussed on trying to transform into himself, instead of trying to switch the mask off or get rid of his current form. A small jolt flowed through his body.

When he opened his eyes again, he felt taller and more powerful. He looked down at his body, and his own silver armour winked at him in the beach sunlight.

He reserved a moment for a victory dance.

"Ciox! Little help here?" said Wildr, who was defending herself with her shield from the Tokea's onslaught of attacks. Ximtar seemed to be trying to assess the situation. "Kavin's still stuck in the ocean! Go help him!" The Tokea pounded another blow on her shield, then decided to grab it in its shark teeth. With a quick yank, Wildr was shield-less.

Ciox scurried over to the edge of the water. He spotted Kavin lying a few feet away, his head thankfully out of the water, but still unconscious. He dragged Kavin out of the way and began trying different things to bring him around. He slapped his face, splashed water at him, and poked his fingers through his eyeholes, but Kavin was dead to the world.

_Don't think that,_ thought Ciox. _He's just unconscious, that's all._

Kavin coughed. Ciox perked up.

Kavin opened his eyes and sat up. He opened his mouth to say something, but ending up coughing water instead. He continued coughing for a moment, then wiped his mouth and said, "What are you doing here, Ciox?"

"I was just in the neighbourhood and I figured you might want the company," Ciox said, pointing over to where Ximtar and Wildr were fighting the Tokea. Kavin looked surprised like he had forgotten, then scrambled to his feet. Ciox noticed that his arm was dangling at his side. "Something wrong with that arm?" he asked.

"Tokea bashed it," Kavin said, then rushed in to help with the fight. Ciox unlimbered his trident and hurried in too.

...

"Wait," said Icras, listening intently. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Singva asked.

A faint roar was heard from somewhere to their right.

"That. It sounds like a wild Rahi-beast." Icras said.

Then, soon after, a shout of pain was heard.

"That sounds like one of our brothers," said Singva. "Come on, this way. We've got to help!"

Icras didn't say anything. He just folded his arms and looked in Singva's direction with a look on his mask that said, _You should know this by know_.

"Oh. Right. Here." Singva took Icras' hand and pulled him along behind her.

...

"We need help!" shouted Wildr, snatching up her shield and blocking an incoming punch in one swift movement.

"That's just wonderful!" cried Ximtar, rolling away from the Tokea. "Even the back-up needs back-up! We're screwed!"

Ciox jabbed with his trident, but it bounced harmlessly off the Tokea's skin with a _bong_. The Tokea bashed him in the gut, sending him flying backward, but he managed to right himself in mid-air and land on both feet. He grinned at that. It was nice to have his old body back. Then the Tokea swiped his legs out from under him and he fell to the sand hard.

"Okay, that wasn't as fun as I'd hoped," he said, spitting out sand.

"Ciox, watch out!" cried Wildr. The Tokea leaped on top of him, pinning him to the ground with its foot. It raised its arm to smash his mask to pieces. Ciox's trident had rolled out of reach, and he still wasn't totally sure how to turn his mask on and off. He struggled, but that only seemed to amuse his captor. It's fist sped down.

Suddenly, a blue arrow shot forward, hitting the Tokea's arm so that it knocked it off its course. The fist slammed into the sand beside Ciox's head.

"The back-up's back-up is here," said Wildr, shooting Ximtar a grin.

Singva lowered her aqua crossbow and unlimbered her scimitar. Icras already had his daggers drawn and charged forward, slashing like a mad-man. The Tokea, intimidated by this sudden turn of events, began backing away. Singva started in to help Icras, but was forced to circle around because of his slashes. Ximtar and Wildr ran in to help. Ciox ran around behind the Tokea, and suddenly a thought struck him. He closed his eyes and focussed on the monster. He imagined himself transforming into it, like something he remembered seeing on a carving once, and suddenly he became extremely woozy for a moment. He opened his eyes to see that he was covered in black sleek scales, his arms were the size of cows, and he had a long, powerful tail. When he smiled, he could feel that his teeth were sharp, and there were dual rows of them. He was an exact copy of the Tokea. That, and he'd figured out the trick to shape-shifting. This, he liked.

The little creatures were scuttling around the Tokea's feet, angering it. Now and then, they would prick it with their pins and needles, but it barely hurt. It was that white one. His pin was heaving and left a mark. That head blow hurt. It swiped its hand at them, knocking the green one backward. He was so much easier to hit.

A tap on its shoulder made the Tokea turn around. When it did, it seemed to be looking at itself. The copy grinned, and swung a fist. The blow caught the Tokea in the cheek, smashing out a few teeth and stunning it momentarily. The teeth would grow back–they always did–but that hit hurt!

Down on the ground, Kavin cheered. "Yeah, Ciox! Woohoo! You go! Kick that thing's butt!"

Ciox's voice boomed out. It was still his voice, but with his huge body, it was magnified twice or three times over. "Thanks, but shouldn't you be helping too?"

Kavin eyed his lance, lying in the sand. His arm was still hurt, and he was therefore useless. He tried to pick it up, but the pain was greater than he'd expected and he dropped it again. Singva ran over to him.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

Kavin nodded. "My arm hurts. It's rather painful. Agony, as a matter of fact."

Singva stared at his arm and concentrated. The glow that had fixed Icras' body surrounded her mask, then Kavin's arm, then it spread to his whole body, like a wave crashing over him. The blue light faded from his arm, then faded across his body, making it like a glow had just washed through him. He swung his arm back and forth. It felt perfectly fine. Even better, his strength was back, and he felt good enough to run around the island a couple times. He snatched up his lance and jabbed it around. "Hm. That's a useful little trick. Should come in handy, eh?" he smiled and flexed his fingers to punctuate the pun. Singva groaned.

Meanwhile, the Tokea was recovering from its hit. It struggled to it's feet, growling. Then it spun around to face Ciox and roared with all the lung-power it could muster. Ciox looked at it in surprise. "Man, you need to see a dentist," he said. "Those are some yellowed teeth you've got there. And some are knocked out."

Ciox ate those words as the Tokea suddenly grew new teeth from the bleeding gums.

"Hm. Guess you're your own dentist." And he hit it again. The Tokea, this time expecting the hit, retaliated with its own punch, catching Ciox in the chin. Ciox' head reeled with the pain, but he managed to stay on his feet and kick at the Tokea's stomach. The Tokea jumped out of the way, landing on the ground with a _thoom_, and bit Ciox' shoulder. He couldn't help but scream.

Ximtar spun around between the Tokea's feet and swung his club into it's unprotected soft underbelly. The beast released it's chomp on Ciox and gasped for air. As it's mouth hung open, daring the Toa to shoot at it, Wildr and Singva took the dare and pumped lightning bolts and aqua arrows (respectively) into the gaping hole. The lightning traversed the length of the Tokea's body, helped by the aqua arrows. The Tokea could not heal wounds made deep inside the body, causing it to panic. It roared and began to stumble away as fast as it could, making a break for the ocean. Apparently these little creatures were more trouble than they were worth.

"No, you don't!" shouted Kavin, charging at the hulking black sea-beast. Suddenly, the trees along the coast began to writhe, as if to some strange rhythm. Then their branches shot out and entwined around the Tokea's limbs.

Then, seaweed shot out from under the ocean's surface and slithered into the Tokea's mouth. It roared, but all that did was let more seaweed in. The Tokea roared again, this time out of sheer agony. The sound traumatized the Toa for months. The seaweed then started to show coming out of the Tokea's eye sockets, and the scream grew louder, before suddenly, the scream faded abruptly and the seaweed shrank back, as did the trees. The Tokea's eyes were gone, probably popped, and, what Ciox assumed, the seaweed had somehow strangled it's brain. The Tokea slumped over, blood trickling from it's now-empty eye sockets.

Kavin looked at what he'd done, speechless. When the trees had wrapped up the Tokea, he had thought that was awesome. But the seaweed...that was just plain cruelty. And it was disgusting to boot.

No one could say anything, except for Icras, who had figured they'd just defeated it. He didn't know how grotesquely they'd done it. He was cheering like mad.

"Yeah! We did it! Woo-hoo! Yeah!...Hey, why isn't anyone else happy-cheering?" For once, no one explained anything to him, making him a little nervous. "Hello? Guys? You're all still there, right?"

Ciox focussed on the image of the Tokea turning back into himself, and when he opened his eyes, thought was truth. He walked over to Kavin and put his hand on his shoulder. No words were spoken. All words were exchanged simply through looks. Kavin began to walk off back to the camp.

Wildr walked over to Ciox. "What was that?"

Ciox looked at the sand. "Kavin's power went wild. This time, it shut off before it did any more damage, like, to us, but Kavin doesn't want to use his power again in case he can't control it."

Wildr frowned and shook her head. "That's not smart. I learned how to control my power. It can't be that hard."

Ciox shrugged. "Think about it. Your powers are over lightning. You can draw that from the air around you. His powers are much more focussed, into trees and grass and seaweed. More power gets used up trying to control more plants, until eventually, the output of power is greater than he can take." He paused. "How do I know that?"

"We need to get back to the camp," Wildr said. "None of us have found out both our mask and elemental powers, but I think we made some breakthroughs today."

Ciox nodded, and they began to trudge through the sand towards the camp, leaving the wet, black carcass behind.


	10. Romcron's HowTo Guide

**Yay! Chapter Ten! Double digits! Ha ha! I forgot to comment on the last one, so I'm making sure I do now. If you missed the Eidtor's Note I put in the last chapter (as I accidentaly forgot about it and had to add it later), go ahead and read it now. BTW, in this chapter, Romcron (yes, he returns) says 'eh'. I am Canadian. Go Canada. We kicked butt at the 2010 Olympic Games.** **We do not live in igloos, and most importantly...WE DO NOT RIDE POLAR BEARS TO SCHOOL. Seriously. My sister's friend was asked this one time when she went to America. Get your real and made-up Canadian stereotypes right, people!** **But enough about me and my rants. Enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 10: Romcron's How-To Guide

The rookie Toa trudged through the forest in the general direction of their camp. Ciox was following his teammates, as he didn't trust his own sense of direction. Kavin was walking in front, as he had left first, but he was refusing all attempts to communicate with him. Before long, the camp came into view, as well as Brulaz and Romcron, who seemed to be playing cards. Brulaz looked up from his hand to see the Toa team walk in.

"Ah, great, you're back! I was beginning to think-wonder where you were," said Brulaz, standing and walking towards them with his arms open wide and a grin on his face. Romcron was as unreadable as the element he represented, as always. "So, how did it go?"

"I found my mask power," said Ciox, Singva, and Ximtar.

"I learned how to use my elemental power," said Wildr and Icras. Kavin said nothing.

"Kavin? What about you?" asked Brulaz, contorting himself to look directly into Kavin's down-turned eyes.

"I used my power and could have killed everybody," Kavin mumbled.

"Oh, that's no problem," said Brulaz, waving down the issue. "I knocked my entire Toa-team off a cliff when I first used my skill-power," he grinned and looked at Romcron. "Remember that?"

"I do...in my nightmares," said Romcron, thumbing through his hand of cards.

"Thanks to Romcron's quick thinking and skill with his power, he saved them from certain annihilation. A painful and hard-abrupt save, but he saved them. In short, I've done worse." Brulaz said. "If you'd like, I can show you all how to properly use your power." Kavin looked up slightly.

"Don't bother. I've resolved to never use my power again." Kavin turned away.

"Well, then, what's the point of even being a Toa-hero then? Come on, I'll show you. Rom, clear away this table." Romcron shot Brulaz a glare that read _Never call me Rom again or your mask is ass_, then pointed his hand at the table and cards, which all melded together into an small iron ball, which Romcron tossed into his tent. "Actually, why don't you show them how to use their powers?" Brulaz said brightly. This earned him another glare which said, _Oh, thanks for dumping this on me. Thank you, oh, thank you._

Romcron cracked his knuckles, and the Toa got into a straight line. "Alright, LISTEN UP! I'm only going to describe it once. This is how to activate, control, and shut off your elemental and mask powers. First, concentrate on where you want your power to activate. I could grow some iron out of my palm, or I could create it inside a tree or something. Then, try and feel the _flow_ of power through you. Usually the power exits me through my hands, but you can use your feet, or head, or whatever you feel like." Romcron demonstrated each of these as he mentioned them, splitting a tree in half by creating a spiked iron ball inside it. "I know it sounds corny, but it actually works. Then, just let the power flow out of you."

"That's what I did!" shouted Wildr, sounding proud of herself. Romcron quickly glared at her, and she shut her mouth. Romcron gave her a grateful nod and continued.

"Remember, you've got to remain in control over your power. Don't just let it explode out of you, or it'll go wild. You control the element, the element doesn't control you. Ximtar, come up here and try."

Ximtar blinked. He opened his mouth to disagree, but he remembered what happened last time he refused an order. He was forced to sit on a pillar of iron in the middle of the ocean that constantly shot up and down.

Ximtar stepped forward.

"Good," said Romcron. "Now, follow the steps I just explained to you, and freeze this." Romcron brought up an iron ball, then tossed it to Ximtar. It had about the same weight as a shotput, so Ximtar was able to hold it at stomach level without major difficulty.

Ximtar stared intently at the ball. When nothing happened, he stared at it harder.

"You don't have laser vision, kid, just do as I said!" Romcron barked. Ximtar started and quickly did as the veteran Toa asked. He concentrated on the power he knew he had, then tried to feel it flow through his body.

A chill ran through him, spreading from his neck throughout his body. It dissipated quickly, but it lingered in his hands, and it seemed to be growing in intensity. Ximtar relaxed his muscles, which he found he'd been tensing, and the power began to flood out of his fingers. He quickly remembered to keep a cap on the power, and the flood petered down to a stream. He opened his eyes, which he also hadn't realized he'd shut, to see the iron in front of him coated in a layer of semi-transparent ice. He stared dumbfounded at it before a grin split across his mask.

"You see?" said Romcron. "The system works. After a few tries, the system becomes nearly useless, but this is simply because you can gather and use energy faster and without the need to concentrate nearly as much. A mere thought is all I used to conjure that ball. Now, part two of the training." Romcron folded his arms behind his back and walked to the side. "Mask powers and use. Ximtar, you can go back now." He waved him back.

Romcron stopped. "Now, this may take some of the fun out of it, but these are your mask names and powers. Ciox, you wear the Kanohi Mahiki, Great Mask of Illusion. You can transform into anything you can imagine. Ximtar, you wear the Kanohi Calix, Great Mask of Fate. You can dodge practically any attack and perform actions no normal Toa can, simply by perceiving it. Singva, you have the Kanohi Kiril, Great Mask of Regeneration. You can restore anything to a more complete state, by your standards." Romcron paced to the left, staring at the 'troops' as he did so. "Wildr, you wear the Kanohi Iden, Great Mask of Spirit. It allows you to separate your mind from your body, so you can spread your mind's gaze out anywhere you want, as far away as you'd like. Kavin, you have the Kanohi Pehkui, Great Mask of Dimishment. You can shrink smaller than a grain of sand, while still retaining your own strength, speed, and mass. Finally," Romcron paused in front of the last Toa in line. Icras. "You wear the Kanohi Arthron, Icras, Great Mask of Sonar. It allows you to...well, see, I suppose you could describe it as, by using sonar waves, like ice bats. Normally, it's a rather useless power to have, but in your condition...Well, I guess you were lucky, eh?"

Icras was stunned. "You mean...if I figure out how to switch-use my mask power, I'll be able to spot-see again?"

Romcron nodded. "Sort of. You could say that, or you could say that you can get a general idea of your surroundings using it. Not the same as artificial sight, but a very good replacement."

"Icras, that's great!" Wildr slapped Icras on the back, and he smiled in her direction. "No more wandering around aimlessly for you!"

Ximtar snorted and folded his arms. "And now he can fend for himself in a battle. None of this 'save the blind one' business."

Singva raised her hand like a schoolgirl. "Brulaz, what was that you said when we first were leaving? Something about 'specific parts of the island that suited our masks best'?"

Brulaz nodded. "Yes, something quite like that. Actually...I just quick-made that up. It sounded good, but, well...where would you go specifically to need to make your soul-spirit fly around?"

"What, you mean when I use my mask, I can fly?" Wildr said. "Sweet!"

"Fly, pass through objects, go underwater without needing to breathe...you're basically the ultimate scout. Did I mention no one can see or hear you?" Romcron said. "Only problem is, your spirit gets more tired the farther away from your body it moves. Be careful. Don't push your limits. Who knows what could happen. We don't want anything to happen to you."

Ciox had the sneaking suspicion that Wildr was Romcron's favourite rookie.

Then, Kavin raised the obvious question: "So, now that we're Toa and all, what do we do now?"

No one appeared to have an answer to that. "I assume we'll have to get off the island with Romcron and Brulaz," said Ciox, shrugging. "I don't see any other way of leaving. Most of us can't swim well, so that's out of the question. So's flying on Icras' air power. I don't think it's possible to even consider tunnelling, leaving us with only one choice: turn to Brulaz and Romcron for help."

Ximtar folded his arms. "Whoa, whoa, who died and made you Mata Nui? Since when do the Toa of Sonics act all high and mighty? And while we're on the subject, who's going to lead our Toa team? My vote goes to me."

"Actually, it's Ciox," said Romcron. "It's already been decided."

"WHAT?" shouted Ximtar. "No way. No way am I following such an idiotic leader."

"Your teammates could say the same about you, Ximtar," Romcron chuckled. Ciox decided that Ximtar was Romcron's _least _favourite. "You're cold and rude, exactly what a leader should _not_ be; Icras is...well, too blind. No offense, Icras."

"None taken," said Icras. "I'd figured I wouldn't be the Toa-leader anyway."

"Alright then, Wildr is a bit brash and all too happy to run into battle; Singva is a bit cowardly, not your fault, Singva; and Kavin...actually, it was a toss-up between Kavin and Ciox for a while, but Brulaz and I decided it would be best for the team if Ciox led, especially after Kavin's little episode." Kavin looked down pitifully, and Singva patted him on the back. He smiled at her, though there wasn't much emotion in the expression.

"Ciox is the ideal leader," Romcron said, walking in a circle around Ciox, who stood up straight and tall on reflex. "He's intelligent, a quick thinker, and he always makes the right decision. On top of that, he was a hunter, giving him knowledge from his Matoran days as to tactics to take down enemies. Ideal." Romcron stood back. "Only problem is, he's totally clueless sometimes. Luckily, he has his friends–that's you," Romcron said to the other Toa, as if they hadn't figured that out already. "–to help him out."

"Then what's our name? I still abide by Toa Ximtar," said (guess who?) Ximtar.

Romcron shrugged. "That is honorary. It is bestowed upon you by the beings you help in your travels."

Ximtar snorted. He was getting rather good at it. "Sounds like a made-up Chronicle, written by some idiot who's making up fake stories about other people's ideas."

Brulaz stood up from where he had sat on a rock. "Well, I suppose you're all true Toa-heroes now." he wiped away a fake tear. "Seems like only yesterday I first fell-dropped in to pick-scoop you all up." he sniffed, but no one was buying his sad act, so he dropped it entirely. He clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "Well, then, we've already got a job for you."

"Wait, a job?" said Wildr. "What, are we going to be heroes for hire?" Icras bumped into her as he walked around, trying to get his mask to work.

"Still not working," he muttered.

Brulaz cocked his head one side, then switched sides. "Something like that, yes. We've received a request from the Legion of Heroes. They're looking for new fighter-recruits. We figure-thought that since you were destined to become Toa anyway, we could have you work with us in the Legion."

"Legion of Heroes?" Ciox questioned.

Brulaz scratched his mask, wondering how to describe it. "It's...a small power-force in the world, like the Dark Hunters, but we take the more...moral jobs, whereas the Dark Hunters, er...don't. Perhaps a combination of the Dark Hunters and the Order of Mata Nui. If you don't know what that is, forget it. It's mostly made up of Toa, like you. By completing this job, they'll accept you into their ranks."

There were murmurs around the group, wondering whether this seemed like a good idea.

"Well, what else are we going to do?" said Kavin.

"I don't know. We can't exactly go anywhere without Brulaz and Romcron, so I guess we have to go with that," said Singva. "Doesn't sound too bad. We go in, help some people, they praise us, we go home. Doing what Toa do best: helping Matoran in need."

"Another line from a fan-Chronicle," scoffed Ximtar.

"Then it's settled then," said Ciox. "We go and do it." He faced Brulaz. "We'll do it."

Brulaz smiled. "I figured you would. Come on, we've got to get you to your first quest-task. Don't want you to be bad-late!" The green spear strapped to Brulaz's back began to spin wildly, like a two-bladed helicopter, and Brulaz rose into the air. "She should be here soon," he said to himself.

"What should?" said Wildr.

"My airship."

Romcron snorted. "_Who_ built it again, Brulaz?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know that Travo built it with his own power, but _who _taught you how to fly it?" This was the first Ciox had ever heard of anybody named Travo, but he assumed it was something between Romcron and Brulaz, so he didn't question it.

"You did."

"Exactly. My airship."

The great wooden ship came flying over the treetops, making the leaves whisper. Brulaz closed his eyes. "Hear that?" he said. "Music to an Air Toa-hero's ears. I'll never get tired of hearing that sound."

A rope ladder fell over the side of the ship, thrown by a Ta-Matoran crew member. Brulaz gestured to the ladder. "Ladies first," he said. Singva and Wildr began to climb, with Ximtar and Kavin following right after.

Icras grinned at Ciox. "It's working!" he shouted. "The mask is working!" he shouted again, and his mask pulsed green. "You're there, and there's trees everywhere, and Romcron's over there..." Icras kept pointing at everything in a circle until he naturally came to the ladder. "...and the ladder's...oh, yeah, I should quick-climb this, shouldn't I?"

Icras sped up the ladder like only an agile Air Toa could, then Ciox followed suit. Romcron pulled up the rear. As he climbed, Ciox took a second to look over the island, feeling a sensation of deja vu: leaving the island to go off to new adventures. One thing that would change, though: In the upcoming month, a friend would die.


	11. On Ship

**Spot the Mega Man 7** **(Megaman? MegaMan?) reference in here.** **And the two Bob and Doug McKenzie references. If you get one, good for you. If you get two references, that's great. If you get all three, YOU GET A COOKIE!^-^ Okay, so this chapter sees some interesting developments...and Kavin being more Kavin-ish. In previous chapters he was being a bit too gloomy for me, so I tried to get him to be a bit cheerier. Also, Ciox finds a new feature about his weapon (remember in the description of his weapon? 'Tiny buzz saw'). Don't worry, 'gimmicks' are definitely NOT going to be integral to the plot in any way.** **Now, read on in the next chapter! Yeehar.**

Chapter 11: On-Ship

Ciox stood on the deck of the airship, feeling the air shoot past his streamlined mask. He grabbed his trident and looked at it. The buzz saw in the middle bugged him. What was it for? As he pondered it, it suddenly began to spin. The sudden movement and noise startled Ciox, but what startled him even more was when the saw jumped straight out of the holder and into his hand. It began to expand, until it was large enough to cut through a good-sized tree. In the center of the saw was a handle, which was the only thing that didn't spin. He gripped it, but didn't know what to do with it otherwise. Then he got an idea. He tossed it down the length of the deck, and after flying for a while, it disappeared. Ciox frowned. "Is that supposed to happen?"

"I guess so," said Romcron, who was standing on the deck ladder right behind Ciox. Ciox jumped and turned around. "The creators of that weapon wouldn't just make a weapon that didn't work properly."

"That's true," said Ciox. Suddenly, the saw reappeared in Ciox's hand, and it was only quick reflexes that prevented him from dropping it straight through the floor.

"Aha," said Romcron, stepping onto the deck. "The saw is designed to return to the thrower's hand after a while. Useful."

"How'd you figure that out in two seconds?" asked Ciox.

Romcron chuckled and clapped Ciox on the shoulder. "Kid, when you've been around as long as me, you figure out weapon gimmicks pretty quickly. I remember one guy who had a weapon that shot _springs_. He was kind of disappointed, but he made the best of it." He materialized his staff-club-thing, then looked at it with a nostalgic smile. "When I first learned how to create this, I was kind of annoyed that I couldn't create something with a bit more flare, or a gimmick, like your trident has. Now I wouldn't part with it for the world."

The dinner bell rang, and Romcron shifted his shoulders backward in a circle, loosening them up. "I'm going down to dinner. Brulaz has the helm for the moment. You coming?" he tossed back as he stepped onto the ladder again.

Ciox nodded. "Yeah." He stepped onto the ladder as Romcron descended, then followed suit.

...

Ciox stepped into the dining hall, spotting his fellow Toa sitting at a table with a large slab of meat and a bowl of small roasted potatoes on it. The meat had chunks missing, and the potatoes looked a little scarce. Ximtar and Wildr seemed to be in the middle of an argument. Ciox walked over and took a seat next to Icras. "What are they arguing about?" he asked.

"Whose weapons are better," said Icras. "Wildr says that her slash-sword is better than his thud-club, and Ximtar says her weapons are just easy-cheap ripoffs of his."

"Do you see this?" shouted Wildr, brandishing her sword inches from Ximtar's mask making him jump slightly. "It's a sword. If I wanted to, I could put it through your head right now with a simple thrust. If I was on the receiving end of your club, the most I would get would be a headache."

Ximtar batted the offending yellow weapon out of his face and hefted his club and shield. "Your shield is exactly the same as mine, but...yellow, with lightning bolts on it. Mine came first, so mine is better. My club reacted instantly to my power when I picked it up. What does yours do? Squat. Zilch. Nada. Quatro."

"Quatro?" said Kavin skeptically.

"Whatever!" Ximtar snapped.

Singva slammed her hands down on the table, surprising everyone and drawing their attention. "Stop your nonsensical fighting!"

"Nonsensical?" said Kavin.

"Pointless," explained Singva. "You two are chattering like ignorant little brakas!"

"That's my line!" said Romcron from another table.

"WOULD YOU ALL SHUT UP?" yelled Singva angrily. She composed herself and turned back to Ximtar and Wildr. "Wildr! I never would have thought of you to be so childish! Arguing over who's weapons are better." She scoffed. "Mata Nui above. You two are _Toa_. _Tooooooooaaaaaaaaa_," she said, drawing out the word to make it clearer. "Why do we have to argue amongst ourselves when there are bigger problems to face?"

Ximtar chuckled softly, and Singva turned her anger on him, cutting his chuckles short instantly. "And you! Always acting like you're better than the rest of us! Kavin told me himself: you were a farmer. A _farmer_, of all things! Any one of us has the right to claim we're better than you, yet _we_ don't! Why do you?"

Ximtar tried to come up with an answer that would make him sound genuinely superior without sounding lame, and came up short. He just shrugged instead.

Singva stood up, slamming her hands on the table and making a potato roll off the table for freedom. It was immediately squished as she stormed out of the hall.

There was silence. No one had ever seen Singva angry before.

Then she poked her head back in. "Was I too loud?"

"No, no," said Icras, picking up the squashed potato. He sniffed it, brushed some dirt off it, and stuffed it in his mouth. "Mmm," he said. "Boot-potato. Yum."

Singva walked back over to the table and sat down with her fellow Toa. "Um..." she started.

Wildr held up her hand. "No need to apologize. I was acting like a stubborn youngster, even if Ximtar is a mindless buffoon who couldn't tell his club from his–"

"HEY!" shouted Ximtar, brandishing his club. He then hefted his foot onto the table and pointed to his club. "Club." He pointed at his foot. "Foot."

"Ohh," said Kavin. "She was going to say _foot_. Okay then."

Ximtar put his foot on the ground and re-strapped his club. "I'm not sure I want to know what you were thinking."

"Just eat your dinner," said Wildr.

...

After dinner, Ciox retired to his room. Kavin followed not long after.

"Good day, eh?" said Kavin.

"Not bad," replied Ciox. He looked at his trident lying on the ground beside his bed, or, more specifically, the saw in the center. His trident had held a hidden power he hadn't seen yet. It made him think: was that the case with his own body? Did he hold amazing secrets just waiting to be found? He turned his gaze to his armoured hand. Not for the first time, he marvelled at how different the change from Matoran to Toa had made him. Gone were the short, chubby, child-like digits, replaced with a more powerful, stronger fist. Gone was the old, humble Ciox, here was the new...humble Ciox. Alright, so maybe there weren't as many changes as he'd thought.

As he was marvelling at his hand, his hand suddenly released a blast of sonic energy straight at the wall. The energy hit the wall with a resounding shriek, then there was a hole in the wall. Icras was on the other side of the hole, peering through at him, mask fading into bright green.

"Oh. Just you. Okay then, happy-night, Ciox. Calm-sleep tight." And Icras was asleep. Go figure.

Kavin, on the other hand, was not. "What did you just do?"

"Um, fired a sonic blast through the wall," said Ciox, pointing at Icras.

There was a pause.

Then Kavin shrugged. "Well, I guess that's good. Just be careful with that power of yours. We've all seen firsthand what might happen when you lose control."

"That doesn't make sense."

"I'm tired. Go to sleep," said Kavin, sounding genuinely ticked off. This day was full of firsts: first time seeing Singva mad, first time using his saw, first time seeing Kavin annoyed...first time getting a full night's sleep in a while.

...

In the morning, Ciox awoke to hear Brulaz on the announcements.

"Hey! Newbies! Up and shine! ...No, that's not right. Rise and attem! ...Wait. Um, Romcron?"

Romcron's voice was heard quietly in the background. "Just tell them to wake up."

"Okay. Hey, wake up. Okay, now that you're up, good day. Just figured you'd all want to see the island where you'll be taking your entry exam."

That got Ciox out of bed. He grabbed his trident and rushed upstairs. Kavin was trailing sleepily behind, leaning on his lance for support. Ciox was the first one to the deck.

The island was large, larger than the last one. Smoke rose up from various sections of the island, indicating settlements, but one smoke source was a large forest fire. The puddle-shaped island looked peaceful, but it was more than met the eye. The rest of the Toa were slowly drifting up to the deck.

"Why are you up here so early?" said Ximtar.

"I wanted to see the island," said Ciox.

"Nerd."

Brulaz (who had been on deck the whole time) pointed at the island. "That there is the island of Yina Nui. It's inhabitants are some Matoran, some Rahi...and some evil-nasty rodents you wouldn't want to seek-find in a dark alley. They're called Kinlo Nui. 'Great Rat'. They are some of the worst creatures you can see-meet."

"Oh, boy," said Icras sarcastically. "Rat-creatures. Just what I wanted."

"Not only are they big-huge, strong-bad, and hungry, they also have reign over the 6 basic elemental powers: Fire, Air, Stone, Earth, Water, and Ice."

"Rat-creatures with superpowers. Lovely."

Ciox interrupted. "Can I assume our job is to stop the spread of these creatures?"

Brulaz nodded. "Right. Be careful though, the Kinlo Nui have a dark-hate for anything that isn't a Kinlo Nui." As he spoke, a large tree toppled over in the forest fire, and a mass of dark shapes scurried away from the crime scene. "That includes stationary objects."

Brulaz cracked his knuckles. "Right then. Now, you all see that one dark-smoke pillar over there?"

"Oh, Mata Nui," said Wildr. "Don't tell me it's this again."

"Go there," said Brulaz, attempting to push all six Toa out of the ship with a gust of wind.

It didn't work. Icras countered with his own gust, creating a mini-tornado on the ship's deck. "Oh, no. Not this time. We aren't falling for that fool-trick again. Fool-trick me once, shame on me, fool-trick me twice, shame on me. There must be fly-boats or something."

Brulaz smiled and nodded. "Nice going, Icras." He dispelled the tornado with a flick of his hand. "I'll take you to the sky-ships. Romcron?"

Romcron (who was standing behind him) created six rods of iron and smashed each Toa in the face with one. Brulaz then blew them out of the ship.

...

Ciox' mind was still reeling from the blow he'd been given. A big piece of iron to the face was not the wake-up call he'd been expecting. He fell, tumbling end-over-end, through the air, just like last time, except this time there was less _Aaargh we're falling _and more _Mata Nui, that really hurt _going around.

Ciox suddenly remembered his mask power, and concentrated on a Gukko bird. Less than a second later, he was a four-winged flying machine. He plunged into a nosedive and swooped under Wildr. She fell onto his back, knocking him downward, but not breaking his flight. He then swooped under Ximtar, with the same result.

Icras and Singva were fine, it seemed. Icras had discovered an unexpected gimmick to his weapons. He held his weapons pointing out behind him, and a green film was spread between his daggers and his waist. He held his arms out straight, occasionally flapping his arms like a bat.

"Isn't this cool?" he shouted, a giant grin on his face. Ciox gave him the Gukko equivalent of a grin. Icras smiled back, unaware of how grotesque a smile looked on a Gukko face.

Singva had called upon her water power, and a pillar of water was rising up from the sea to greet her. All that left was...

Kavin fell, tumbling end-over-end, through the air. He tried to think; it was tough after the iron blow to the head. Luckily his mask was still okay, so he did what Romcron recommended and tried to call on his mask power.

Kavin shrunk down to the size of a raindrop. "Hmm," he said. "This could be useful...in some other situation."

Icras saw Kavin falling (through his mask power) and pulled his wings in close to himself. He started into a nosedive until he was at Kavin's height, then called on his elemental power. A tiny platform of air materialized under Kavin, and Icras, using his power to keep aloft, held out his hand. Mini-Kavin hopped onto the outstretched arm and ran along until he was behind Icras' mask. Icras released his hold on the wind and continued falling down to the ground.

"You're getting good at this," said Mini-Kavin in a high-pitched, squeaky voice.

Icras tried to look at Kavin in puzzlement at his sudden change in voice pitch, but Kavin was standing right behind his mask. He gave up trying to look at him and figured that the voice came with the stature.

...

Thirty seconds later, the six Toa were standing on the beach, unharmed except for where they'd been smashed with iron.

"That hurt. Like, a lot," said Ximtar.

"Deal with it. We all got hit too," said Singva, healing the pain in her team-mates' faces.

Ciox, who was morphing back into a Toa, clapped-his wing-hands together. "Should we keep moving?" he said. "I'm not sure where the smoke-cloud is from here, but I have an idea. Wildr, your mask allows you to see far away, right?"

Wildr nodded. "That's what Romcron said."

"Can you use that? I remember Romcron saying something about spreading your mind's eye floating far away or something like that, so you can look out over the whole island without having to move. Sounds useful for a scout."

Wildr nodded. "I'll try it." She closed her eyes and concentrated on her mask.

Then she fell face-first into the sand.


End file.
